The founder and chairman of Proshare LLC, Dr Olufemi Awoyemi, has urged the government to rethink its approach to reforms and policy progression.

He gave this advice as the keynote speaker at the 16th Founder’s Day Annual Lecture and Award ceremony of the Bible Society of Nigeria with the theme ‘Diversification and Production: Panacea to Nigeria’s Economic Quagmire’ held in Lagos on Friday.

“As a nation, we need to rethink our approach to reforms and policy progression with proper sequencing and integration into a measurable and fairly comprehensive national inputs and outputs matrix. If we do this, Nigeria’s GDP can be five times the projected S1tn economy through clarity of purpose, deliberate fiscal and monetary policy design, strategic trade positioning, and taking advantage of international patents and copyright protections,” he noted.

He stated that the country’s economic challenges were surmountable, adding that “they are the growing pains of a nation in transition, grappling with structural reforms to diversify its economy and unlock its vast potential.

“We are confident that a whole-of-government approach to our economic management is the most pragmatic panacea for present Nigeria. Formulating, communicating, and executing policies in silos amongst ministries, departments, and agencies has been and continues to be a recipe for chaos,” Awoyemi asserted.

He claimed that the country’s economy was diversified, but its revenue source was monothetic.

According to Global Edge, an online economic data platform, the oil sector provides for 95 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings and 80 per cent of its budgetary revenues.

However, in the third quarter of 2024, the oil sector contributed 5.57 per cent to the country’s real GDP.

President Bola Tinubu stated that his administration was targeting growing Nigeria’s economy to at least $1tn as it plans to diversify revenue sources.

The Federal Government on Thursday increased the Appropriation Bill for the 2025 fiscal year to N54.2tn from N49.7tn.

President Tinubu in a letter to the National Assembly, read during plenary by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and in the House of Representatives by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

The president attributed the N4.53tn added to the Appropriation Bill to an increment in revenues recorded by some revenue-generating agencies of the Federal Government.

According to Tinubu, the increase arose from N1.4tn in additional revenues made by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, N1.2tn made by the Nigeria Customs Service, and N1.8tn generated by some other government-owned agencies.

Meanwhile, Awoyemi mentioned that despite the country’s economic challenges, it has many comparative advantages that need to be harnessed.

“But despite our limitations, which are not peculiar to us by all standards, we have many things going for us, some of which are underreported in our national output data. Our diverse resource base includes a vibrant creative industry, a thriving lifestyle economy, a growing ICT sector, an advanced financial service sector, and a highly attractive human capital pool that continues to drive investment and remittance inflow.

“However, our robust pace of progress has been slow, with the lack of real-time internet connectivity and robust transport networks, especially the rail system. Over-reliance on road transport has stifled the free movement of goods and services and restrained our mobility within the specific reach. We have also failed to deal with the high business costs, limited regional integration, and many sectors undermining allocation and monitoring,” the Proshare boss expounded.

Former head of state, Dr. Yakubu Gowon, who is the patron of the Bible Society of Nigeria, encouraged Nigerians to keep hope alive amid the current economic challenges.

Gowon, who was represented by the President of the Society, Bishop Timothy Banwo, maintained, “I would like to ask Nigerians to keep hope alive and put absolute trust in God to help Nigeria overcome her current challenges. I encourage leaders at all levels to embrace the principles of righteousness, justice, and love, as no society can truly prosper without moral and spiritual integrity,” he stated.

Also, the Chairman of NEM Insurance Plc, Mr. Tope Smart, who chaired the event, said Nigeria’s reliance on oil was unsustainable because the determination of its prices was outside its control.

“We all agree that the Nigerian economy can be classified as a mono-economy, as it has been depending on oil that generates about 90 per cent or more of our oil in Nigeria. This is not sustainable; it is not sustainable at all. I think we should, as a nation, be very intentional about how we achieve this strategy. Let’s take oil as an example. It is very, very volatile to depend on oil because it is not within our control as a nation. It depends on international oil markets. So when something is not within your control, it means that it can go up and it can go down,” he explained.

He said the country is one of the largest exporters of raw materials, which is not good for the economy.