Posted Thu, Oct 17, 2019 3:18 AM

The 25th Nigerian Economic Summit: Shifting Gears to a Prosperous Nation

The silver jubilee anniversary of the Nigerian economic summit – the flagship event of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) had over 1000 participants in 2 days, across five Plenary Sessions, six Roundtables, six Industry Breakout Meetings, six Lunch Sessions and 12 Design Workshops. The summit also witnessed the funding of 4 Startups, 3 Essay Competition winners, 10 Art Contest winners and millions of online engagements.

The 25th Nigerian Economic Summit with the theme “Nigeria 2050: Shifting Gears” held on the 7th and 8th of October 2019 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja. The summit set a new agenda for Nigeria with the aim of ushering in the next industrial revolution and marking 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 25th edition of the Nigerian Economic Summit kicked off with the arrival of the President of the federal republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Muhammadu Buhari, as well as several public and private sector industry leaders. President Buhari declared the Summit open with a charge to leaders in the public and private sector on the need to localise solutions to the unique challenges confronting the nation’s socio-economic development. In his welcome statement, the chairman of the NESG, Mr Asue Ighodalo, reiterated the ideals of the NESG to champion the reform of Nigeria into an open private-sector-led economy that is globally competitive and sustainable.

Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, who delivered the opening remarks, pointed out that a 25th summit is testament to the successful partnership between the country’s public and private sectors. She remarked that the outcomes of previous summits had contributed to power, agriculture, pensions reforms, among others. She pointed out that this year’s Summit theme was timely, while also highlighting the risks and opportunities for Nigeria’s projected 400 million, mostly youth population, by 2050.

The Summit Sub-Themes focused on achieving rapid industrialization, transforming education, managing demography and sustainable peace and security. Discussions at the plenary and design workshops focused on 3 pillars – economic growth, competitiveness and inclusive development – and they generated robust and rigorous engagements that were aimed at creating a clear 30-year forward agenda for the private sector to lead sustainable economic development.

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) a non-profit, non-partisan private sector think tank with a mandate to promote and champion the reform of the Nigerian economy into an open, private sector-led globally competitive economy organizes the Annual Nigerian Economic Summit (NES) in partnership with the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Budget and National Planning. The NES is the flagship event of the NESG and has become an annual dialogue which has consistently provided a widely recognized platform for top policy makers and corporate leaders.