No Security, No Economy: Restoring Safety as the Precondition for Sustainable Growth

At Nigeria's 32nd Economic Summit, the importance of restoring security as a prerequisite for economic growth was emphasized. Without safety and stability, essential aspects like job creation, industrialization, shared prosperity, and regional development become either impossible or significantly more costly to achieve. Nigeria's security challenges have severe economic repercussions.

Displacement of farmers in various zones has disrupted local food production and contributed to widespread food insecurity. Oil theft in the Niger Delta reduces export revenues and leads to lower crude oil production. Attacks on critical infrastructure, such as power transmission equipment and telecommunications towers, result in costly repairs and deter investment needed for expansion.

The relationship between security and food security in Nigeria is now critical. Farmers have been forced to abandon their fields due to conflicts, banditry, and terrorist activity, leading to significant reductions in cultivated land in historically productive regions. The summit will focus on security interventions to restore access to farmland and stabilize agricultural production.

Nigeria's power and telecommunications infrastructure frequently faces vandalism, theft, and deliberate attacks, causing widespread disruption to electricity supply, mobile money, digital markets, emergency services, and essential connectivity. The summit plans to create a comprehensive critical infrastructure protection framework, combining physical security measures, community engagement strategies, rapid repair capacity, and strong legal deterrents to protect infrastructure.

Oil theft is a major economic challenge in Nigeria, with estimated losses reaching hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. The summit will explore governance, operational, and community-engagement approaches to reduce oil theft, such as increased transparency in the upstream value chain, enhanced monitoring technologies, economic inclusion in the Niger Delta, and stringent enforcement against networks enabling crude oil theft.

Restoring security not only directly reduces losses but also enhances Nigeria's attractiveness for productive investment, lowering financing costs and attracting both domestic and international investment. The summit views security as a societal challenge that requires economic, governance, and social responses alongside security-sector efforts.

Root causes of insecurity in Nigeria include poverty, inequality, unemployment, and exclusion, which must also be addressed to effectively tackle the security issue.