Nigeria Needs Investor-friendly Policies To Boost Confidence, Says Economist

The Nigerian government must create stronger policies that protect investors’ rights to boost confidence and attract more investment.

An economist, Dr Muda Yusuf, emphasised that investor trust remains fragile without clear and enforceable safeguards, hindering economic growth.

Dr Yusuf, who is the chief executive officer of the Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), stressed that implementing robust legal frameworks is crucial to ensuring transparency and minimising risks in the investment landscape.

In a report titled “‘Protecting Investors and Employers: A National Policy Imperative’ the CPPE boss highlighted the need for a comprehensive framework to protect investors’ rights in Nigeria.
Yusuf said the current lack of investor protection undermines investor confidence, deters investment, and slows economic growth.

He called for a new Investor and Employer Protection Framework to establish a fair, predictable, secure investment climate, protect investors from arbitrary actions, and promote regulatory stability.

According to him, investors, entrepreneurs, and employers are the lifeblood of every modern economy. They take risks, mobilise capital, create jobs, generate tax revenues, and drive innovation. Yet, in Nigeria, their rights and investments remain inadequately protected.

“While significant legal safeguards exist for workers and employees, no comprehensive framework protects the interests of investors and employers. This imbalance undermines investor confidence and leaves those who create jobs vulnerable to disruptions, particularly from industrial actions by labour unions,” he said.
He explained that, “the real sector is especially exposed, given its large workforce, high fixed costs, and significant sunk investments. There are worries about the seemingly unlimited powers of regulatory institutions.”

Yusuf noted that “investors in Nigeria operate in an environment marked by uncertainty and institutional weakness, such as weak legal protection, unrestrained union actions, regulatory unpredictability, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and weak dispute resolution.”

He stated that these factors erode Nigeria’s competitiveness, deter local and foreign investment, and slow economic growth and job creation.

CPPE CEO lamented that unrestrained strikes in strategic sectors such as energy, transport, and health disrupt production, threaten national security, and endanger public welfare, saying, “policy inconsistency and regulatory arbitrariness make long-term planning difficult, deepening Nigeria’s dependence on imports and weakening its industrial base.”

He emphasised that these trends will continue to erode national competitiveness, discourage innovation, and diminish Nigeria’s economic resilience without corrective reforms.

On policy recommendations, Yusuf highlighted Legal and Institutional Reforms, Labour Relations and Union Accountability, regulatory and Policy Stability, Bureaucratic and Security Agency Conduct, and enforcement and Governance Mechanisms.

He disclosed that, “protecting investors and employers is not a privilege, it is a national economic imperative. Investors mobilize capital, create jobs, and generate the tax revenues that sustain government and society. Without them, there can be no sustained growth, no employment, and no national prosperity.”

He insisted that, Nigeria must urgently institutionalise a fair, secure, and predictable business environment that protects those who take risks to create wealth, saying this is not about weakening labour unions, but about balancing rights and responsibilities to foster sustainable economic growth, social stability, and national security.