As Nigeria commemorates its 66th Independence Anniversary, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) congratulates the government and people of Nigeria and reaffirms its commitment to a prosperous, productive, and private-sector-led Nigerian economy.
The 66th anniversary provides an important opportunity to reflect on the state of our economy and the conditions confronting businesses, households, and investors. The LCCI recognizes that the Federal Government’s economic reform program has delivered encouraging signs of macroeconomic stabilization. Real GDP growth has strengthened, inflation has moderated significantly from the elevated levels of the previous two years, external reserves have improved, and the foreign exchange market has become more orderly. The recent reduction in the Monetary Policy Rate to 23 percent is also a welcome signal of the authorities’ growing confidence in the disinflation process.
However, macroeconomic stabilization must ultimately translate into improved welfare, stronger purchasing power, lower production costs, and more jobs. This remains the critical test of the economic recovery.
High Cost-of-Living Pressures
Despite the decline in headline inflation, the LCCI is concerned that the cost of essential goods and services remains beyond the reach of a significant proportion of households.
The problem is not only the rate at which prices are rising; it is also the high level to which prices have already risen over the past several years. Consequently, a moderation in inflation does not necessarily mean that Nigerians are experiencing lower prices. For many households, food, transportation, housing, healthcare, education, and energy continue to absorb an increasing proportion of disposable income.
Recent increases in petrol and diesel prices, driven partly by developments in the international oil market, have further heightened the risk of renewed cost pressures across the economy. Diesel prices above ₦2,000 per litre and petrol prices around ₦1,400 per litre in parts of the country have significant implications for transportation, manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, and retail prices. The LCCI therefore urges policymakers to focus not only on inflation reduction but also on restoring purchasing power and reducing the structural costs embedded in the prices of goods and services.
The Cost of Doing Business Remains Excessively High
For businesses, particularly MSMEs and manufacturers, the operating environment remains challenging.
The cost of electricity and alternative energy, diesel, logistics, finance, imported raw materials, machinery, regulatory compliance, and multiple taxes continues to constrain competitiveness. The high cost of credit remains particularly problematic for businesses seeking working capital and investment finance.
The recent reduction in the Monetary Policy Rate is encouraging, but the transmission to actual lending rates will take time. The Chamber therefore calls for complementary measures that will enable businesses, especially MSMEs and productive-sector enterprises, to access credit at more affordable rates. Beyond the Central Bank of Nigeria’s reduction of the Monetary Policy Rate, the National Credit Guarantee Company should work to enable more SMEs to access credit.
The business community also continues to face challenges arising from regulatory uncertainty, multiple taxation, inconsistent enforcement, port inefficiencies, border delays, infrastructure deficits, and the multiplicity of agencies involved in business regulation. Nigeria cannot achieve sustained economic transformation if the cost of producing in Nigeria remains substantially higher than the cost of importing competing products.
Boost the Manufacturing Sector Capacity
Manufacturing must become the centerpiece of Nigeria’s job-creation strategy. The LCCI considers manufacturing one of the most important channels through which Nigeria can convert economic growth into mass employment, higher productivity, and improved household incomes. Manufacturing growth has shown signs of improvement, but the sector remains constrained by energy costs, inadequate infrastructure, expensive credit, foreign exchange exposure, weak domestic supply chains, and competition from imported products.
The government should therefore move from isolated interventions to a comprehensive industrial competitiveness programme built around five priorities:
- Reliable and affordable energy: Accelerate the implementation of the power-sector reforms and create dedicated industrial power solutions, while improving gas supply to industrial clusters.
- Affordable long-term finance: Expand development-finance instruments, credit guarantees, and blended-finance mechanisms targeted at manufacturing, agro-processing, and MSMEs.
- Predictable trade and tariff policies: Provide greater certainty on tariffs, import restrictions, and customs procedures while ensuring that trade policies support domestic production without creating artificial shortages.
- Local supply-chain development: Promote the domestic production of industrial inputs, packaging materials, machinery, chemicals, agricultural inputs, and other intermediate goods required by manufacturers.
- Industrial infrastructure: Develop and rehabilitate industrial parks, economic clusters, roads, rail connections, ports, and logistics infrastructure to reduce the cost of moving goods.
We need to produce more in Nigeria, employ more Nigerians, and reduce the country’s dependence on imported goods.
Creating a better business environment
The LCCI urges the Federal Government to make the next phase of economic reform more firmly centered on competitiveness and productivity. This requires a sustained programme of regulatory reform. We commend the recent launch of the government services portal, services.gov.ng, and call for its optimal operation to deliver government services more efficiently and affordably to businesses. Businesses should be able to register, obtain licenses, pay taxes, import inputs, export products, access finance, and resolve commercial disputes without excessive administrative delays and costs.
A private-sector-led growth agenda
Nigeria’s long-term prosperity will depend on the ability to shift from an economy predominantly driven by consumption and government expenditure to one increasingly driven by investment, production, exports, and private-sector job creation. Nigeria has a large domestic market, a young population, significant agricultural resources, substantial energy potential, and an expanding entrepreneurial ecosystem. What is required is an environment that enables these assets to translate into productive investment. The LCCI therefore calls for a renewed national commitment to production, productivity, and competitiveness.
We need an economy where a Nigerian manufacturer can produce competitively, where a farmer can move produce efficiently to market, where an entrepreneur can obtain affordable credit, where an investor can rely on predictable regulations, where workers can earn incomes that support a decent standard of living, and where young Nigerians can find productive employment within the country.
Our Recommendations
The LCCI calls on the Federal Government to implement a targeted package of immediate measures to provide relief to households while addressing the structural causes of high prices.
- Reduce transportation costs
The government should intensify measures to expand mass transit, improve public transportation infrastructure through the rollout of CNG and electric vehicles, and support the more efficient movement of food and essential commodities from production areas to urban markets. - Strengthen food production and distribution
The immediate priority should be to increase food supply and reduce post-harvest losses through investment in irrigation, storage, rural roads, agricultural inputs, security, and market infrastructure. We can boost food production by focusing more on poultry and fisheries, agro-processing to add value to primary commodities, and supporting food supply logistics from farms to markets. The government should also facilitate the movement of food from surplus-producing areas to deficit markets and remove unnecessary restrictions and bottlenecks along major food corridors. - Moderate energy-related costs
The government should pursue measures to reduce the transmission of global energy price shocks to domestic consumers and businesses. This should include improving domestic crude supply to local refineries, strengthening refinery operations, expanding domestic gas utilization, and accelerating investment in alternative energy solutions. - Protect the purchasing power of workers
Government and employers should continue to engage in mechanisms to improve real incomes, particularly for low- and middle-income workers. Wage adjustments should be accompanied by productivity improvements and measures that reduce the cost of essential goods and services. - Strengthen targeted social protection
Rather than broad and fiscally expensive subsidies, the government should strengthen targeted interventions for the most vulnerable households, including food assistance, transport support, and other carefully designed social protection programmes. Import waivers for critical production inputs can reduce inflation in targeted sectors.
Conclusion
At 66, Nigeria has enormous economic potential. The challenge before us is to ensure that macroeconomic reforms translate into tangible improvements in citizens’ lives and in the operating conditions of businesses.
The LCCI acknowledges the progress made in restoring macroeconomic stability but believes that the next phase of reform must focus on converting stability into prosperity.
The country must now move decisively from stabilization to inclusive growth, from consumption to production, from high operating costs to competitiveness, and from economic recovery to broad-based prosperity.
Nigeria at 66 must be a Nigeria of greater productivity, stronger businesses, more jobs, improved purchasing power and shared prosperity.
Happy 66th Independence Anniversary to all Nigerians.
Engr. Leye Kupoluyi
President
Lagos Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Wednesday 30th September 2026
