The National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN), will launch Nigeria’s first Sub-National Competitive Index on November 2, a move that will help spur growth-friendly policies. The index evaluates the competitiveness of Nigeria’s 36 states and FCT through metrics that examine growth, development and productivity potential.

NCCN’s index draws from resources of The World Economic Forum, World Bank, Mexico’s IMCO and HBS’s Prof Michael Porter. The NCCN also received funding from Ford Foundation, the Tony Elumelu Foundation, and resource support from the EU Energy Initiative Partnership Dialogue Facility (EUEI PDF) to drive initiatives targeted at fiscal balance, healthy public-private policy contestation and unleashing private enterprise potential.

“The NCCN Sub-National Index is a potent tool for catalyzing business-friendly policies that will spur job-rich growth in Nigeria’s 36 states,” NCCN Chief Executive Officer Matthias Chika Mordi said. “The findings of NCCN Sub-National Index underscore the salience of state governments in Nigeria’s overall economic growth potential.”

The NCCN sub-national will enable states to identify ways to maximize growth and development potential. State policies and actions hold the key to boosting Nigeria’s overall growth.

Nigeria faces a well-documented overdependence on oil for fiscal revenue that has stifled incentives for private sector growth and remains insufficient for sustainable poverty reduction. According to OPEC, the oil and gas sector accounts for about 35 per cent of gross domestic product and petroleum exports revenue represents over 90 per cent of total exports revenue. In the last 4 years, Oil contributed over 60% of Government revenue (2016 – 64.27%, 2015 – 65.38%, 2014 – 67.47%, 2013 – 69.77%) according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Gross capital formation as a percentage of GDP remain inadequate for growth compared to other emerging economies (Algeria 51%, Mexico – 23%, South Africa – 21%, Nigeria – 15%). Operational costs are high, the lack of adequate infrastructure constitutes a binding constraint for manufacturing and agriculture, and structural rigidities suffocate diversification and industrialization efforts. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of today’s context is Nigeria’s rising youth population, which is an unutilized demographic window of opportunity that is fast turning to a ticking demographic bomb in the form of a massive army of unemployed youths.  62.27% of the population is under the age of 25, Countries such as the US, China, Japan, and South Korea achieved economic growth and poverty reduction by exploiting a similar demographic window of opportunity.

While national data is widely known, state performance remains obscured by a previous lack of reliable data. Over Fifty percent of revenue from Nigeria’s federation account is controlled by state and local governments especially when you account for derivations and bailouts from federal to state governments. Beyond that, the majority policies affecting businesses are controlled by states.

NCCN is a nonpartisan private effort aimed at enhancing the productivity of businesses operating in Nigeria with the ultimate goal of improved socio-economic outcomes for Nigeria.