The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has urged the Federal Government to prioritise structural reforms in agriculture, manufacturing, construction, real estate, and trade in order to convert Nigeria’s current economic growth momentum into broad-based prosperity.
In a policy brief released on Sunday, the Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, said Nigeria’s second-quarter 2025 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) figures showed encouraging signs of recovery. However, he warned that the gains would remain fragile unless targeted interventions were made in sectors that directly affect the livelihoods of most Nigerians.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the economy grew by 4.23 per cent year-on-year in Q2 2025, an improvement on the 3.13 per cent recorded in the first quarter and 3.48 per cent in the same period of 2024. Yusuf noted that this performance demonstrated that the economy was moving beyond stabilisation. Still, he stressed that the real challenge was to translate the growth into jobs, poverty reduction, and improved living standards.
He observed that the oil and gas sector had been the major driver of growth, recording a remarkable 20.46 per cent expansion. Yet, its relatively small 4.05 per cent share of GDP highlighted the need for stronger contributions from non-oil sectors to achieve inclusive development.
Agriculture, which employs the majority of Nigerians, rebounded to 2.82 per cent growth after a near-stagnation of 0.07 per cent in the first quarter. Yusuf, however, cautioned that the sector still faced serious structural hurdles, including poor rural infrastructure, low mechanisation, and insecurity. He called for increased government investment in irrigation, mechanised farming, and farmer support schemes.
The manufacturing sector slowed to 1.60 per cent growth, reflecting high production costs, foreign exchange instability, and rising import pressures. Construction also moderated at 5.25 per cent, partly due to delays in infrastructure projects. Trade and real estate, two key labour-intensive sectors, posted weaker growth at 1.29 per cent and 3.79 per cent respectively.
“These figures tell us that while momentum is building, the underlying fundamentals remain weak,” Yusuf said. “Sustaining and deepening recovery requires urgent measures such as reducing energy and logistics costs, expanding infrastructure investment, improving access to affordable credit for farmers and small businesses, and promoting domestic capacity through local content and import substitution policies.”
He emphasised that inclusive growth would only be possible if reforms were consistently executed and backed by effective governance. He also called for stronger collaboration with the private sector, noting that policy stability and investor confidence were critical to long-term recovery.
Yusuf concluded that Nigeria had entered a promising phase of economic recovery, but warned that without structural reforms, the momentum could easily fizzle out. By focusing on agriculture, manufacturing, construction, real estate, and trade, he argued, the government could turn GDP growth into genuine economic transformation, creating jobs and lifting millions out of povert.
