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The Chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), Olaniyi Yusuf, has asserted that regional collaboration is the “new currency of global competitiveness,” placing the onus on Nigeria to lead the integration drive.
Speaking at the 31st Nigerian Economic Summit on Wednesday, Yusuf stated that Nigeria holds both the “responsibility and the opportunity” to spearhead regional integration, corporate expansion, and geopolitical alignment across the continent.
He framed this urgency against a backdrop of global economic turbulence, including trade tensions, supply chain vulnerabilities, and climate-related shocks, emphasising that “The global economy as we know it is undergoing rapid shifts… which reminds us that no nation can secure prosperity alone.”
He concluded that failure to integrate regionally will severely limit individual national growth.
Yusuf then highlighted the immense potential of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which encompasses a market of over 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of $1.9 trillion.
He referenced World Bank estimates, noting that the successful implementation of AfCFTA could lift 30 million Africans out of poverty and boost Africa’s GDP by an additional $440 billion by 2035.
However, the Chairman cautioned that these positive outcomes would remain “unrealised” unless African nations, led by Nigeria, take urgent action to address critical barriers.
He stressed the immediate need to unlock trade barriers that stifle the movement of goods and services, unleash the growth of homegrown African companies, mobilise capital efficiently across national borders, and harmonise policies to ensure clear policy coherence throughout the region.
Yusuf concluded that without these urgent actions, the promising framework offered by AfCFTA will fail to change the continent’s economic narrative.
