Nigeria promotes investment without building production capacity – UNILAG don

Adelaja Odukoya, a professor at the University of Lagos, has criticized Nigeria's economic policies for promoting investment while neglecting to strengthen domestic production. Odukoya argued that this imbalance has weakened Nigeria's productive foundations, making it difficult to achieve sustainable development. Speaking at the Adeleke University Toyin Falola Annual Lecture, Odukoya highlighted several contradictions in how the Nigerian state manages economic activity.

He stated that the state encourages investment and entrepreneurship without creating the necessary conditions for technological transfer and generating sufficient productive employment. Odukoya pointed out that Nigeria expands primary-product exports but fails to develop processing capacity, and builds infrastructure without establishing strong linkages with domestic production.

He emphasized that accumulation does not equate to development and that genuine development should be measured by expanding productive, technological, institutional, and human capabilities. Odukoya's concerns were echoed by Prof Toyin Falola, who argued that Africa's vast natural resources will continue to reinforce dependency unless governments develop the industrial, technological, and institutional capacity to transform them into productive power.

Falola emphasized that Africa cannot remain a spectator as global economic and geopolitical arrangements change, stressing the need for knowledge, government policy, and industrial capacity to change its economic position.