The concept of wealth
Wealth is the ability to generate sufficient income to afford modern life’s basic necessities. A wealthy nation is one where citizens can secure essentials like shelter, a healthy environment, food, education, healthcare, security, and entertainment without reliance on handouts. Earning a good income depends on what a nation produces and sells, as well as how effectively it manages its money and assets to generate more wealth.
Value creation: The sweet spot concept:
Wealth generation hinges on value creation, illustrated by the sweet spot concept, which emphasises balancing cost reduction with value enhancement for buyers. A nation becomes wealthier by producing goods at lower costs while maintaining or increasing value better than others.
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How effectively a nation handles infrastructure, know-how, capital, and raw materials drives its ability to reduce costs relative to other nations. Government support, leadership, and partnership are crucial in creating a cost-effective ecosystem for global competition.
Exporting for wealth: A nation cannot be rich by selling to itself:
True wealth comes from international trade, not just by selling domestically. Foreign exchange earned through exports enables a nation to afford goods and services from abroad. A strong currency and robust economy result from producing goods that meet global value and cost expectations. The more goods a nation exports, the richer its citizens and businesses become, leading to more jobs, a higher GDP, and resources for public goods (roads, healthcare, law enforcement, schools, and general modernization). While import substitution has its role, real capital growth stems from exports.
Actioning an export-led economic plan—thoughts:
Despite decades of talking about diversification, Nigeria remains dependent on oil. To truly diversify, Nigeria should leverage its oil assets to support the development of other internationally demanded products and services. This requires a shift to an export-led economic plan, where the national strategy revolves around exports. Strategic and annual plans should emphasise exports while also supporting import substitution. Both government and private sector actors must adopt this mindset and must work together to envision, scope, strategise, and execute for it.
It is also important to note that nobody can be the best in everything; so it is with countries. Being the best requires investments, policies, know-how, and image in the international community. As a country, we must decide where to focus our time and resources on building international-level competence. Without international-level competence, there will be no international-level customers.
“Earning a good income depends on what a nation produces and sells, as well as how effectively it manages its money and assets to generate more wealth.”
My case is for Nigeria to adopt a more guided economic development framework where the nation sees itself as a business entity—a diversified group of companies. The country should focus on sectors where it can compete internationally. This competitive advantage can be historical, engineered, or natural. Benchmarking against crude oil’s $30B yearly revenue, Nigeria should identify five strategically relevant sectors (SRS’s) where it has or can create a competitive advantage. The questions then are:
- What sectors should be prioritised?
- How should they be developed?
- What government-private sector collaborations should lead the effort?
Minimum wage and improved productivity
The new minimum wage is a welcome development. Its sustainability requires civil service right-sizing, SMEDAN-led business schemes to absorb any excesses, civil service modernisation and automation, and export-led economic growth.
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Civil service right-sizing and allied SMEDAN-led business schemes
Paying all existing civil servants well is a huge challenge, as productivity is too low. The government and its advisers must address this issue. We must pay well without throwing people into the labour market. We need to eat our cake and have it. A reset of our system is needed now.
To achieve this successfully, the following are required:
- Roles redefinition and process automation.
- Workforce optimisation.
Workforce optimisation will likely include:
- Moving workers to new roles is aided by newly automated processes.
- Redeploying some workers to run their own businesses under schemes led by SMEDAN and other subnational institutions, powered by special intervention funds. Such schemes should cover:
- Outsourcing some government operational processes to the private sector (with ultimate authorisation of digital certificates, licences, approvals, mandates, and permits—DCLAMP—remaining with government officials).
- Introducing government-supported business initiatives such as export and import substitution schemes.
Automation
Automation involves:
- Modernising processes to enable remote services, reduce steps, and digitise the procurement of DCLAMP.
- Increasing speed and convenience.
- Optimising civil service size.
Embracing large-volume, high-value exports
Deliberately strengthening the economy by driving an export-led approach that generates well-paying jobs for Nigerians with broader societal benefits.
About the author:
Sir Mac Atasie is a seasoned strategy consultant and innovation architect who has been a key part of shaping Nigeria’s corporate and technological ecosystem. As CEO of Nextzon and former Head of Strategy at Accenture, he has led many transformative initiatives. He also served as the CEO of HEIRS Alliance, forerunners to HEIRS Holdings, a conglomerate with investments in Transcorp and other notable corporations. With a deep imprint in Nigeria’s financial sector, Mac has designed strategies for leading banks, insurance companies, and regulatory bodies including the CBN, SEC, and BOI.
