Mr Segun Adeleye, President/CEO, World Stage Limited has advised Nigeria to look at different options of solving the insecurity challenges including possible collaboration with the United States on joint military exercises that will flush out terrorists in the country.
In his opening address at the WorldStage Economic Summit (WES) 2025 in Lagos on Friday with the theme Tackling the Issue of Low Productivity in Nigeria, he said, “Interestingly, insecurity is attracting more attention in recent time, including from abroad. Insecurity in parts of the country negatively affects economic activity.”
He said as U.S President Donald Trump is threatening to launch attacks in Nigeria due to insecurity related issues, the government can engage him and agree on joint military exercises that will flush out the terrorists.
He said, “It will be helpful if the federal government can flow with the current momentum and grab the right strategy, including possible foreign assistance to finally end insecurity… after all if Boko Haram has been existing since the Olusegun Obasanjo administration of 1999 to 2007 and we are yet to see the end of it till now, we don’t need anyone to tell us again that we need help.”
At the summit which attracted top public and business leaders including Mr Olanipekun Olukoyede , Executive Chairman , Economic And Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Dr. Olasupo Olusi, Managing Director/CEO, Bank of Industry (BoI), Adeleye said economic productivity in Nigeri will be a mirage without security.
He made reference to the theme of the summit compared with the theme for WES 2024 which was ‘Nigeria: Setting a Stage For Business And Economic Recovery’, saying, “If we ask whether the economy has recovered in one year since WES 2024, the answer we will likely get is yes. Nigeria’s economy has shown strong signs of recovery, marked by significant GDP growth, increased foreign reserves, and a more stable foreign exchange rate.”
However, despite the macroeconomic recovery, he said challenges like high food inflation, widespread poverty, and the high cost of living persist for many citizens.
“Between WES 2024 and now, four major tax reforms were enacted, specifically in June 2025 to improve revenue collection; the combination of high inflation and a weakened currency has severely eroded household purchasing power; many households are struggling to afford basic necessities, leading to changes in consumption patterns, such as rationing food or seeking cheaper alternatives,” he said.
“The World Bank has projected cautious optimism, with growth expected to accelerate modestly in the coming years, assuming sustained monetary discipline and structural reforms.”
He said the developments made it easy for WES to choose the theme for this year summit ‘Tackling The Issue Of Low Productivity In Nigeria’ with the logic that “if we can get the economy to produce, high food inflation, widespread poverty, and the high cost of living will be checked.”
He said the current situation in Nigeria is that while many are working, almost half of Nigerians are estimated to be poor, living below the national poverty line with multidimensional poverty at 63% and income poverty at 40%, just because the right jobs are not available.
He asked, “Flashing back again to our last year theme, if Nigeria’s economy is recovering, how do we get it to deliver higher productivity jobs to raise living standards?
“With the evidence of structural transformation, there remains concerns that the pace is insufficient to propel industrial take-off as industry’s share of employment increasing only marginally over the past 20 years, while low-quality jobs characterized by high informality remains high at 92.6%.
“It’s important that as we discuss low productivity today, we should not lose sight of the government reforms like subsidy removal, exchange rate unification aim to stabilize it; the macroeconomic reforms and tax changes to address these issues.
“The question we should be able to answer with this summit is whether these reforms are effective enough or are there other alternatives to spur economic productivity?
“As Nigeria’s real GDP grew by 3.19% in Q2 2024 and 4.23% in Q2 2025, some analysts project lower growth for 2025 due to factors like lower-than-expected oil production and insecurity.”
WES over the years has been consistent in addressing economic challenges through deliberation and recommendation of practicable solutions with public and private sector engagement in an innovation setting to inspire new thinking in business, policy formulation/implementation, economic reform and development.
The Guest Speaker at the Summit, an economic expert, Dr Abidemi C. Adegboye of the Department of Economics, University of Lagos described Nigeria’s productivity challenge as both a human tragedy and a defining opportunity.
Photo caption: Mr Segun Adeleye, President/CEO, World Stage Limited delivering his opening address at the WorldStage Economic Summit (WES) 2025.
