I closed my article last week, acknowledging the ongoing reforms at the Ministry of Solid Minerals under Mr Dele Alake. The overriding objective of reforms in the sector should be securing large global investors in Nigeria’s mining sector, who can provide funding at scale and possess the expertise and technology, as well as send positive signals to other stakeholders in the sector that Nigerian mining is open for business.

I once asked a knowledgeable analyst what it takes to secure major investment in mining from the global mining centres in South Africa, Australia, Canada, the USA, etc., and the answer I got was long-term policy stability. Apparently, investors in the sector, not surprisingly, take a very long-term view, perhaps up to 50 to 100 years, because mining investment cannot be wound down quickly once made. In his opinion, back then, we had to communicate through laws, data and technical information, institutional reforms and systems. Perceptions of political risk and country instability would not help.

In the agriculture and agro-allied sector, I suspect we need a fresh, policy-based agenda for modernising and transforming Nigerian agriculture based on a value-chain approach, and we must eliminate the constraint of insecurity. This is another sector in which the government is already actively investing in mechanisation, with several schemes to support farming and food processing. Perhaps the most important constraints that we can focus on alleviating in the short term are insecurity, rural-urban transport infrastructure and extension and support services to farmers across the country. While the biggest impact on security may lie within the province of the federal government, I suspect all others require concerted action more from state and local governments, NGOs and global partners. I am not yet certain, in addition, that we have created a transformational strategy for revamping Nigerian agriculture beyond incremental strategies. The decline in sectoral growth in agriculture from over five per cent to below two per cent these days suggests new strategies and mindsets are required.

With housing, it may be essentially academic and perhaps unrealistic to talk about the challenges of the Land Use Act and finding solutions to that, given its embeddedness in the Constitution and the attractiveness of the Act to the state governors. So, the key question is what else can be done to secure increased funding and investment for housing and mortgages by the government to some extent but predominantly from the private sector and global stakeholders? What can the government do to facilitate better access to land and more effective land administration? How can CBN sustain the push to reduce inflation until perhaps in the medium to long term it reaches single digits, and therefore reduce interest rates and make mortgages more affordable? I know of an initiative between the private sector and the Ministry of Finance International called MOFI Real Estate Investment Fund, which is aimed at providing more affordable mortgages, and I hope that this scheme succeeds as a first step in this journey. The jury is still out on MREIF.

One strength of the Tinubu administration, apart from its successful macroeconomic reforms, is its determined push to strengthen investments in road infrastructure all over the country. The President has demonstrated this commitment and is willing to push the fiscal limits in doing this. While I understand and support this strategy, pushing aggressively for private sector and international funding for infrastructure – roads, seaports, airports and power – to supplement government funding will make the current strategy more sustainable. The Nigerian Integrated Infrastructure Masterplan, completed during the President Goodluck Jonathan administration, recognised that, given the scale of Nigeria’s infrastructure deficit, almost half of the funding for infrastructure has to come from non-governmental sources. That means enhancing capacity at the Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission and enhancing the attractiveness of private sector investments in Nigerian infrastructure.

The power sector is a fundamental pillar of broad-based and inclusive economic growth, employment and poverty reduction. I believe success in power rests on decentralisation of transmission, finding a pathway to sustainable tariffs (which may be after 2027), massive investments in generation, distribution and transmission, as well as developing a comprehensive strategy in partnership with the private sector for leveraging solar resources in Nigeria’s electricity generation strategy.

My final comments for now will focus on the education and health sectors. Nigeria appears to be lucky to have Professor Muhammed Pate and Dr Tunji Alausa running our health and education sectors. Finally, there seems to be direction and traction concerning reforms in both sectors. I believe an examination of current reforms in these foundational areas and considerations of future directions and strategies will require a stand-alone article.