OAL Proposes Innovative Strategies to create ₦500 Trillion Budget by 2026/2027
The Public Sector Practice Group at Olisa Agbakoba Legal (OAL) today 9th March 2025, released a new policy paper titled: “Governance and Economic Analysis and Forecast 2025: To Succeed Nigeria Needs Innovation And Efficiency To Create A ₦500 Trillion Budget For 2026/2027”.
This policy paper presents a comprehensive strategy for Nigeria’s economic transformation from a resource-dependent economy to a diversified, production-oriented powerhouse capable of generating a ₦500 trillion budget by 2026/2027. This ambitious target represents a fundamental reimagining of Nigeria’s economic architecture and governance model that will address unsustainable debt burdens while dramatically enhancing revenue generation.
Drawing on Acemoglu and Robinson’s “Why Nations Fail,” the policy paper demonstrates that Nigeria’s economic underperformance stems primarily from extractive institutions that concentrate power and wealth among elites. Sustainable prosperity requires replacing these with inclusive institutions that distribute economic and political power broadly across society.
The policy paper analysis reveals two fundamental imperatives for transformation:
First, Nigeria must restructure its governance architecture through meaningful devolution of powers to states and local governments, constitutional reform that reflects true federalism, judicial independence, and legal system modernisation, and comprehensive anti-corruption measures and public service reform.
Second, strategic interventions across multiple sectors can unlock over ₦500 trillion in economic value. These include ₦85 trillion from oil and gas reform through a shift from “Contract Oil” to “Development Oil”; ₦65 trillion from comprehensive tax reform and enhanced revenue collection; ₦50 trillion from MOFI optimisation through asset monetisation and public-private partnerships; ₦45 trillion from strategic development of critical minerals; ₦40 trillion from unlocking “dead capital” through property rights reform; ₦35 trillion from maritime and blue economy development; ₦30 trillion each from aviation sector revitalisation and digital economy expansion; ₦25 trillion each from enforcing local content requirements and implementing strategic trade policies; and ₦10 trillion from space industry development.
Implementation requires execution at “Trumpian speed” – characterised by decisive action, concurrent implementation across multiple fronts, results-oriented governance, bureaucratic streamlining, and technology leverage for acceleration.
The ultimate success of these economic policies will be measured not by macroeconomic statistics or international recognition, but by tangible improvements in the daily lives of ordinary Nigerians:
- Does the market trader in Onitsha have more money in her pocket?
- Is food more affordable for the factory workers in Kano?
- Can the farmer in Benue access better healthcare and education for his children?
- Does the office worker in Lagos see a clear path to a better future?
With a rapidly growing population, intensifying climate impacts, escalating global competition, and an unsustainable debt burden, Nigeria must capitalise on recent reform momentum to build inclusive institutions for broadly shared prosperity. The transformation outlined in this report is not just economically necessary, it is the moral imperative of our time.
To download the policy paper, click here
For further information, please contact:
Public Sector Practice Group, Olisa Agbakoba Legal
