Anambra State Governor Prof. Chukwuma Soludo has challenged Nigeria to raise its annual economic growth to at least nine per cent warning that the current pace of expansion is insufficient to lift millions of people out of poverty and provide jobs for the country’s growing population.
He said Nigeria would need to achieve growth of about 12 per cent annually to build a $1 trillion economy by 2030 or 2040 depending on the timeframe pursued arguing that the country must invest far more in productive activities to reach that ambition.
Soludo spoke at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja where government officials and business leaders met to discuss how economic growth could generate jobs improve productivity and raise living standards.
Nigeria’s economy has continued to expand but growth of about four per cent remains below the pace Soludo considers necessary to make a substantial difference to poverty and employment. He said the country must move beyond modest expansion and create the conditions for faster investment-driven growth.
The governor identified low investment as one of the major obstacles to achieving that objective. With investment estimated at between 17 and 20 per cent of economic output he said Nigeria needed to commit substantially more resources to productive assets if businesses were to expand and generate jobs on the scale required.
For Soludo the challenge is not simply to spend more money but to ensure that available funds produce economic value. He cautioned that large government budgets could give a misleading impression of the resources available to meet the country’s enormous development needs.
He argued that the combined spending of the Federal Government state governments and local councils amounted to less than one dollar per person daily when spread across Nigeria’s population.
The implication he said is that public resources must be used more carefully while national savings should be directed towards investments capable of increasing production supporting businesses and creating employment.
Soludo also called for closer cooperation among the three tiers of government. Since a significant share of public expenditure occurs at the state and local government levels he said development efforts would achieve more if policies and spending plans were coordinated rather than pursued separately.
He pointed to Anambra’s education programme as an example of the social gains that can follow targeted public intervention. The state provides free education from kindergarten to secondary school a policy he said had helped reduce its out-of-school children rate from 2.5 per cent to 0.25 per cent.
The governor also cited a report by Oxford and the United Nations Development Programme which according to him put Anambra’s multidimensional poverty rate at 9.6 per cent.
He used these figures to argue that people should judge economic and social policies by the improvements they deliver not merely by the amount of money allocated to them.
Soludo said reducing food prices would require changes to how agricultural produce is stored transported and delivered to consumers.
He estimated that Nigeria loses about 43 per cent of agricultural output after harvest leaving farmers unable to sell a substantial portion of what they produce and reducing the volume of food available in markets.
He called for investment in storage facilities transport and distribution networks to help preserve farm produce and move it efficiently to urban centres. He argued that reducing these losses would increase the quantity of food reaching consumers and help ease price pressures.
The governor also urged policymakers to support exports encourage local processing and strengthen domestic supply chains. He said Nigeria should direct investment towards sectors where it has competitive strengths allowing businesses to produce more goods locally and compete in foreign markets.
He maintained that private businesses would have to play a larger role in expanding productive capacity adding that sustained investment was essential to creating jobs that could support households over the long term.
Soludo said annual growth of between seven and nine per cent or more was necessary to make meaningful progress against poverty. His call for a higher investment rate reflects the scale of the task facing policymakers as they seek to increase output while improving the distribution of economic opportunities.
At the same summit the Minister of Budget and Economic Planning Senator Abubakar Bagudu defended the Tinubu administration’s economic reform programme saying the government would not abandon its current direction despite the hardship still facing many Nigerians.
His position comes as opposition politicians including African Democratic Congress presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar have promised to restore the petrol subsidy to reduce the cost of living.
Bagudu argued that bringing back the subsidy would reverse the government’s efforts to correct longstanding economic problems. He said the administration intended to retain the reforms while making changes where necessary to improve their effects on households and businesses. ‘For those of us serving under the President and Vice President the instruction has been clear: we must stay the course’ he said.
The minister said continuing with the reforms did not mean ignoring the difficulties Nigerians face. Instead he said the government needed to improve how it carried out its policies and ensure economic progress translated into better opportunities and living conditions.
He was particularly firm on the question of petrol subsidy saying the administration had no intention of returning to the previous arrangement. ‘There will be no return to the fuel subsidy and the economic distortions associated with the previous system’ Bagudu said.
He recalled that the President had raised the question of sustaining the reforms at a National Economic Council meeting in October 2025 where discussions included differing views on the changes and the need to establish a framework for their continuation
Bagudu said the government remained open to adjustments that respond to changing economic conditions provided they improved implementation rather than reversed the reform programme.
He said the next phase must focus on expanding productive activities and ensuring that the economy’s performance creates more jobs improves business conditions and benefits a wider section of the population.
The administration intends to support agriculture manufacturing infrastructure digital technology and human capital as part of its strategy for more inclusive growth.
Bagudu said the Renewed Hope Agenda was designed to address structural weaknesses that had limited investment and economic activity for years. He said the government’s objective was to build an economy that could withstand shocks while creating more opportunities for citizens.
The minister also pointed to increased revenue for the Federal Government states and local governments as well as improvements in key economic indicators.
He said the additional funds available to state and local authorities could support infrastructure development and improve public services but stressed that cooperation across the three levels of government would be important to achieving these results.