The Nigerian Employers Consultative Association says the federal government needs the collaboration of organised businesses to drive its economic reforms effectively and should keep reviewing them to ensure their outcomes match the country’s objectives.

Director General Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde spoke to journalists at the Nigerian Employers Summit in Abuja, saying the gathering aimed to review the reforms and assess their impact, which he acknowledged had become harsh for many Nigerians.

Oyerinde said removing the fuel subsidy in 2023 was arguably overdue but had changed the dynamics of doing business, likening past practice to a nation eating its breakfast at dinner by printing money and subsidising the unsustainable. When the reality dawned, he said, the President declined to keep borrowing to fund consumption, leaving everyone to bear the pain.

He said the subsidy’s removal had distorted how citizens did business and raised costs, since everyone now had to pay more for fuel and diesel, while reduced disposable incomes affected individuals. For reforms to work, he argued, government needed the support of organised business and had to reassess policies whenever outcomes fell short. Oyerinde said businesses could nonetheless leverage the reforms and the ESG regime, stressing that unsustainable businesses could neither create jobs nor generate the tax revenue government relied on, and that the summit’s recommendations would be shared with the government