Two years into President Bola Tinubu’s administration, Nigeria’s economic reforms have yielded mixed results, significantly boosting the services sector while leaving key components of the real sector, particularly manufacturing and agriculture, grappling with survival.The Director-General of the LCCI, Chinyere Almona, acknowledged the significant policy shifts under the Tinubu administration, notably the removal of fuel subsidies, exchange rate liberalisation, and efforts to bolster public revenues through tax reforms.While Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth improved to 3.4 per cent in 2024 from 2.74 per cent in 2023, Almona noted this was ‘driven by the services sector, which expanded by 5.37per cent and accounted for over 57 per cent of GDP.’‘This growth, while positive, has been uneven as manufacturing and agriculture sectors have continued to struggle due to high production costs, insecurity, and logistical inefficiencies, limiting business competitiveness,’ Almona stated.She said the reform measures have ‘imposed short-term hardships on businesses and households, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which remain the backbone of the Nigerian economy.’Almona described Nigeria’s current macroeconomic landscape as one in transition.While the government’s “Renewed Hope” agenda has attracted some investor interest, revived engagement with multilateral institutions, and improved public finance efficiency, it has also seen inflationary pressures reach historic highs.These pressures are attributed to high energy costs, food insecurity, forex instability, and weak industrial productivity.According to her a key concern to the Chamber is policy coordination. ‘While monetary authorities target inflation, fiscal policy expands through borrowing and recurrent expenditure. This divergence has weakened the impact of economic interventions and eroded investor confidence,’ Almona added.She regretted that Inflation, stood at 23.7 percent in April 2025 and currently remains a critical challenge. Almona noted that the fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange (FX) liberalisation have directly increased prices, especially for transportation and food.She said: ‘While the subsidy removal freed up an estimated N7.5 billion annually and improved the fiscal outlook, it simultaneously tripled fuel costs, significantly increasing business operating expenses for logistics, agro-processing, and retail SMEs’.‘Despite FX reforms and the unification of the exchange rate, which have improved transparency and boosted confidence, with the naira stabilising around ₦1,600 and external reserves rising above $37 billion, businesses still face challenges accessing forex for imports, and many continue to price goods defensively due to volatility concerns’.She lamented the growth in public debt to the tune of ₦144.67 trillion, with debt service consuming over 90 percent of federal revenue.The LCCI boss advised the government to consider cheaper debt sources and strategically deploy debt into the real economy to subsidise production.
