GDP: Utomi and Adeoye Call on Government to Leverage Natural Resources and Value Chains

Economists Professor Pat Utomi and Professor Tunde Adeoye have called on the Federal Government to better exploit Nigeria’s natural resources and strengthen value chains to boost Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth.

The two scholars gave separate interviews to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.

Utomi, co‑founder of the Lagos Business School, urged the government to adopt strategies similar to those used by China to drive economic expansion. He said the government should support the development of regional factor endowments and their associated value chains across the country. “The government should support the harnessing of factor endowments and their value chains in various regions of the country,” he said. “We should prioritise, for instance, North‑West gum Arabic, North‑Central sesame seeds and South‑South hydrocarbons, and replicate such initiatives nationwide.”

He also stressed the need for policies that would support productive activities through the establishment of industrial and business clusters. “Government should incentivise them with temporary protective policies that will enable them grow and export to the international market,” he added.

Utomi noted that Nigeria’s current economic growth rate remains inadequate when compared with the country’s fertility and population growth rates. According to him, stronger economic growth is necessary to create jobs, improve incomes and sustain long‑term economic stability.

Adeoye, from the Department of Economics at the University of Lagos, said increased investment in agriculture would significantly boost GDP growth. He argued that improved funding for subsidised farming equipment and agricultural inputs would enhance food production nationwide. “Government allocating more funds to subsidised farming equipment and inputs will boost food output and increase raw materials for production. Then the sector could contribute more to GDP growth than what it is currently doing,” he said.

Adeoye also urged the government to prioritise infrastructure renewal, particularly in the electricity sector, to improve industrial productivity. “Allocating more budgetary votes to fix electricity would boost productivity in the country. That will reduce the cost of production and ensure economic development,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released Nigeria’s first‑quarter 2026 GDP report on Monday. According to the report, the economy grew by 3.89 percent year‑on‑year in real terms during the first quarter of 2026, a decline from the 4.07 percent growth recorded in the fourth quarter of 2025 but higher than the 3.13 percent growth in the first quarter of 2025. The NBS also reported moderate growth of 4.31 percent compared with 4.33 percent recorded in the corresponding period of 2025.

(NAN)

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