Steadying Nigeria’s Fledgling Foreign Exchange Reform

By Wale Thompson In a surprise move on 14 June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the removal of all restrictions on foreign exchange rates and signalled a willingness to tolerate greater flexibility in exchange rate determination as against the previous practice of a hard peg. In simple terms, the CBN ‘floated’ the […]

Back to the Basics: How to Fix UBE and Public Basic Education in Nigeria

By Bolaji Abdullahi Section 4 of the National Policy on Education (in the 4th amended version) of 2004 states that the goals of primary education in Nigeria are to: inculcate permanent literacy and numeracy, and ability to communicate effectively… provide the child with basic tools for further educational advancement, including preparation for the trades and […]

Understanding Nigeria’s Soaring Inflation and How to Tame It

By Adebayo Ahmed The new dispensation combined with quick policy actions on fuel subsidies and foreign exchange, as well as the arrest of the suspended central bank governor, has brought the question of monetary policy to the front burner. With President Bola Tinubu announcing during his inaugural speech the need to “clean” the Central Bank […]

Addressing Nigeria’s Lingering Power Challenge

By Odion Omonfoman The centrality of adequate and reliable electricity supply to individual welfare, economic growth and overall national development cannot be over-emphasised. This message is not lost on Nigeria. However, various initiatives and reforms aimed at creating an optimal power sector for the country have fallen short. The reforms initiated by the President Olusegun […]

Repositioning Nigeria’s Public Universities for National Growth and Competitiveness

By Bolaji Abdullahi Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999 coincided with the end of the first decade of a global commitment to the goal of Education for All (EFA) and the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), focused on achieving universal basic education, especially in the developing countries, as one of its core […]

Rethinking the Approach to Nigeria’s National Security

By Fola Aina The Nigerian state is currently confronted with multiple security threats, most of which emanate from, and are perpetuated by violent non-state actors (VNSAs). In the troubled Northeast region, the predominant threats include the activities of violent extremist organisations such as the Boko Haram driven by a political ideology of establishing an Islamic […]

Urgent Policy Actions on Fiscal, Monetary and Trade Fronts

By Babajide Fowowe and Muhammed Shuaibu As Nigeria prepares to usher in a new administration, the state of the economy remains a key point of interest. This owes largely to the myriad of economic challenges the country faces, as highlighted in the Agora Policy Report on the economy1. A critical issue that the incoming administration […]

Nigeria Needs Comprehensive and Coordinated Interventions to Tame Unemployment

By Adebayo Ahmed Jobs are one of the foundations for a stable society and key to improvements in quality of life. Unfortunately, unemployment is one of Nigeria’s major challenges today. Beyond the negative impact on human welfare, unemployment is gravely implicated in Nigeria’s other pressing challenges, especially low productivity, poverty and insecurity. It needs to […]