Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, has outlined key imperatives for the country’s economic growth, stressing the need for diversification, improved productivity, and value creation across multiple sectors.
Edun made the remarks on Monday while receiving participants of the Senior Executive Course 48 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies in Abuja.
“The imperative before us is clear. We must deliberately broaden the base of our economic activity, deepen productivity, and create sustainable value across multiple sectors,” he said.
Commending the theme of the course—focused on economic diversification and the Orange Economy—the minister described it as timely, especially as Nigeria seeks to recalibrate its economic structure.
He noted that the country’s growth model has long been constrained by overdependence on a narrow revenue base, exposing it to both external shocks and internal vulnerabilities. According to him, this underscores the urgency of building a more resilient and diversified economy.
Edun identified the Orange Economy—covering sectors driven by creativity, innovation, and digital enterprise—as a largely untapped driver of growth. He pointed out that Nigeria already enjoys a comparative advantage in areas such as film, music, design, and digital content, where its talents have gained global recognition.
However, he cautioned that creativity alone is insufficient without supportive policies.
“Our challenge is not the absence of creativity; it is how to design policies that convert that creativity into scalable economic outcomes such as jobs, enterprises, and measurable contributions to GDP,” he said.
The minister emphasised that successful diversification must be supported by strong institutional frameworks, coherent regulation, sustainable financing, skills development, and improved market access, alongside a stable macroeconomic environment.
He linked these priorities to ongoing reforms under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, noting that current policies are aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and creating an enabling environment for investment and growth.
“Macroeconomic stability is the foundation upon which enterprise can flourish, investments can grow, and livelihoods can improve,” Edun added.
On entrepreneurship, he described it as the engine that transforms ideas into tangible economic value, stressing the importance of building a dynamic ecosystem where innovation can thrive and scale.
Edun also reaffirmed the ministry’s commitment to prudent fiscal management and reforms designed to remove barriers to productivity, noting that sustainable transformation depends on coordinated policies across fiscal, monetary, trade, and human capital development.
He further highlighted the need for disciplined policy execution, stating that Nigeria’s challenge often lies not in a lack of ideas but in gaps in implementation and coordination.
Earlier, Director-General of NIPSS, Ayo Omotayo, represented by retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police Adeleye Otebada, said the engagement forms part of the institute’s mandate to develop practical policy solutions to national challenges.
He noted that the institute’s Senior Executive Course has, over the years, contributed significantly to shaping government policies, adding that the current theme was inspired by a presidential directive to explore the Orange Economy and entrepreneurship as pathways for sustainable growth and job creation.
