The Bank of Industry (BoI) has called for stronger alignment among key economic actors to boost Nigeria’s productivity levels.
Its Managing Director, Dr Olasupo Olusi, made the call on Sunday via a communique from the WorldStage Economic Summit (WES) event in Lagos.
Olusi, who was represented by Lanre Babalola, Group Head, Climate Finance and Sustainability, BoI, noted that deep productivity constraints affected competitiveness, job creation and welfare.
He said that the bank could not act alone, adding that productivity growth required adequate infrastructure, supportive policies, industry-ready talent from universities, and stronger private-sector collaboration.
According to him, no single institution, not even BoI, can solve this independently.
“Together, we can create an ecosystem where every Nigerian business has a fair chance to thrive,” he said.
The managing director described the summit as a critical platform to reflect on root causes and design data-driven, collaborative solutions to enhance productivity in the nation.
He said it provided the opportunity to address issues of exports, supply chain, small businesses modernisation, and a workforce equipped for the demands of a modern, innovation-driven world.
Olusi explained that BoI’s daily interactions with Nigerians experiencing productivity hurdles push the bank to pursue productivity as a mission, not merely a metric.
He recalled the bank’s mandate to catalyse domestic production, create jobs, and enhance industrial competitiveness being fundamentally about unlocking productivity across sectors.
He stated that BoI remained committed to being a strong and reliable partner in the country’s productivity journey.
“We are ready to innovate, to collaborate, and to continue investing in enterprises that can transform our economy from one of consumption to one of production.
“Productivity is the engine that powers national prosperity. It is what transforms effort into outcomes, ideas into industries, and talent into tangible progress,” he said.
Olusi also noted that BoI’s mandate; financing production, job creation and competitiveness was fundamentally about unlocking productivity across sectors.
He cited impact achieved through long-term financing, credit guarantees, cluster support, and technology adoption, stressing that Nigerians are not unproductive but “under-enabled”.
He outlined key thematic areas guiding BoI interventions to include climate & sustainability, youth and skills, digital economy, MSMEs, infrastructure and gender.
Olusi urged that WES 2025 should mark a turning point “from diagnosing the problem to scaling the solutions,” saying the time for productivity-led growth is now.