As Nigeria celebrates 66 years of independence, Dr. Ayo Teriba, a prominent Nigerian macroeconomist and CEO of Economic Associates, is urging a shift in the country's financial conversation. Rather than focusing solely on income and obligations, Teriba believes it's time to explore what Nigeria owns and how to maximize its assets. This approach could unlock new economic opportunities and drive growth.
Teriba argues that assets go beyond physical structures like monuments and government buildings. They include businesses, land, infrastructure, natural resources, financial holdings, intellectual property, digital resources, culture, and human capital. A community's market, motor park, schools, products, traditions, skills, and people are all valuable assets that can be leveraged for economic benefit.
To achieve this, Teriba proposes the creation of a Deal Room, a marketplace and processing platform for investment opportunities. This platform would allow owners or custodians of assets to bring them forward, prepare them for investment, and connect them with investors, advisers, and capital. The goal is to make Nigeria's investment opportunities more visible and accessible.
The Deal Room would serve as a one-stop platform for a wide range of investible opportunities in Nigeria, including federal, state, local-government, company, and community opportunities. This would eliminate the need for investors to search for opportunities across various ministries, states, or institutions. The platform would also track progress, measuring the number of deals originated, prepared, and accelerated.
By creating a national investment scorecard, Nigeria can encourage healthy competition among states, local governments, and institutions. This scorecard would show which sectors or regions are bringing forward more opportunities and help identify areas where deals are getting stuck. The platform would also strengthen economic diplomacy.
Teriba emphasizes that not everything needs to be done through partnerships; there are areas where the public sector, companies, firms, households, and individuals can act alone. However, by working together and being better prepared, public and private actors can achieve more together than they can alone. Nigeria has already made progress in pension reform, sovereign investment institutions, and public-private partnerships.
As Nigeria looks to the future, Teriba encourages individuals, communities, and institutions to identify their assets, establish their value, and find ways to make them work harder. By shifting from an income-centred to an asset-centred mindset, Nigeria can build wider prosperity and create a stronger economy.
Key points
- Dr. Ayo Teriba proposes the creation of a Deal Room to connect investment opportunities with investors.
