Posted Wed, Sep 4, 2019 3:17 AM

Nigeria 2050: Shifting Gears

The 25th Nigerian Economic Summit with the theme “Nigeria 2050: Shifting Gears” is scheduled to hold on the 7th and 8th of October 2019 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. The Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) is the flagship event of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) and the 25th Nigerian Economic Summit (NES #25) is expected to set a new agenda for Nigeria. It is also expected to usher in the next industrial revolution and mark a critical strategic shift to a competitive private sector economy by 2050 through a renewed focus on investments in human capital development to achieve competitiveness and inclusive growth.

The silver jubilee anniversary of the NES is scheduled to have a lot of interesting events, including a plenary session, breakout sessions, awards night, among others. NES #25 will bring stakeholders in private sector, public sector, social sector, politics, civil society, academia, international organisations and diplomatic community together to create a unifying narrative for setting a long-term national agenda that will be led by the private sector. The Summit Theme, “Nigeria 2050: Shifting Gears” will emphasize the imperatives for the country to shift gears to a competitive private sector economy to be able to address and respond to the challenges and implications of our 2050 scenarios.

The Summit Sub-Themes will focus on achieving rapid industrialization, transforming education, managing demography and sustainable peace and security. Discussions will be anchored on 3 pillars – economic growth, competitiveness and inclusive development – and they will drive discussions at the sessions and generate robust and rigorous engagements with an overarching objective of signaling a coherent and clear 30-year forward agenda for the private sector to lead sustainable economic development. The key Summit Drivers are:

Competitive Industries. Nigeria’s economic prosperity depends largely on strategically identifying specific industries (and industry segments) with a competitive advantage to unleash economic opportunities and fast-track economic development that translates into productivity growth.

Accelerators. As Nigeria shifts gear towards a competitive private sector economy, several factors will accelerate that progress. A strategic approach is required in understanding their distinguishing effects and impacts in accelerating the competitiveness of the industries that will drive Nigerian economy.

Indicators. Human capital development drives economic growth and any meaningful economic growth model must lead to inclusive and sustainable development that promotes high standards of living.  In several instances, indicators of wealth, which reflect the quantity of resources available to the nation, provide no information about the allocation of these resources.

 Attendance to the Nigerian Economic Summit is strictly by invitation.

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) is a not-for profit/non-partisan think tank with a mandate to promote and champion the reform of the Nigerian economy into an open, private sector-led economy that is globally competitive on a sustainable basis. Being a prominent advocacy think tank, the NESG engages government, private sector and civil society in key development issues and economic policies in Nigeria.