Nigeria is gradually shifting from consumption to investment-driven growth — Rewane declares

…says sustained productive investments key to jobs, higher living standards

Nigeria is gradually transitioning from a consumption-led model to an investment and production-driven economy, Managing Director of Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Bismarck Rewane, has declared.

Delivering the keynote address at the Lagos Economic Summit, themed “The Real Deal: Africa’s Greatest Investment Opportunity,” Rewane emphasized that sustained capital deployment into productive sectors remains the most reliable pathway to stimulating long-term economic expansion, creating jobs, and raising living standards across the country.

Rewane’s perspective set the tone for broader deliberations at the summit, where leading economists, financiers, and private-sector leaders assessed the trajectory of African industrialization, pointing to indigenous mega-investments such as those spearheaded by the Dangote Group as vital blueprints for domestic production and import substitution.

Corroborating the imperative of shifting focus toward production, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC), Samaila Zubairu, noted that while macroeconomic reforms have bolstered foreign exchange stability, lifted reserves, and eased headline inflation, national priorities must now pivot squarely to industrial growth, employment, and productivity.

He lauded the Dangote Group’s massive capital projects as pivotal catalysts unlocking continental potential.

Also reinforcing the keynote thesis, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Muda Yusuf, maintained that industrialization remains the only durable path to economic resilience.

He urged policymakers to properly harmonize trade and industrial frameworks to shield and empower indigenous manufacturers against external shocks.

In his remarks, the Founder and CEO of Nairametrics, Ugodre Obi-Chukwu, added that Africa’s expanding demographic base offers a vast industrial market, noting that large-scale domestic assets like the Dangote Refinery are crucial to preventing capital flight and building local self-sufficiency.

Summit participants further noted that to fully realize an investment-led growth cycle, authorities must modernize national credit infrastructure, strengthen digital identity frameworks and scale up skills development to position the continent’s youth for global competitiveness.