AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

NIGERIA’S $1 TRILLION ECONOMY: ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT MUST BECOME A NATIONAL PRIORITY

2nd September 2026

His Excellency,
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
President and Commander-in-Chief
Federal Republic of Nigeria
State House, Abuja.

Your Excellency,

I respectfully commend your visionary leadership and the courageous steps your administration has taken since assuming office. Your economic reforms, policy interventions, and commitment to repositioning Nigeria demonstrate bold leadership, integrity, and determination to build a stronger and more prosperous nation.

Mr President, I have listened attentively to your economic pronouncements and studied various analyses of your administration’s policies and actions. Many of the measures are necessary and capable of strengthening our economy. However, one critical component appears to be missing from the centre of our national economic strategy: massive entrepreneurship development.

For Nigeria to achieve the ambition of becoming a $1 trillion economy, entrepreneurship development must be declared a national priority.

Economic expansion is good. Increasing government revenue is important. Attracting foreign investment, developing infrastructure, and stabilising the economy are equally necessary. However, the true foundation of a prosperous economy is productivity.

Productivity is powered by entrepreneurship, innovation, technology, modern machinery, entrepreneurship education, local manufacturing, and the strategic engagement of young people in productive economic activities.

Nigeria cannot build a $1 trillion economy by concentrating primarily on government revenue, taxation, borrowing, oil receipts, or foreign investment. We must deliberately develop millions of productive citizens and enterprises capable of creating value, processing raw materials, manufacturing products, delivering competitive services, generating employment, and expanding our export capacity.

1. CONVERTING HUMAN CAPITAL INTO PRODUCTIVE CAPITAL

Mr President, Nigeria’s greatest resource is not beneath the ground; it is the entrepreneurial potential of its people.

Our youthful population should not be described merely as a demographic advantage. It must be educated, profiled, equipped, financed, mentored, and connected to measurable economic opportunities. Otherwise, our population advantage may become a burden of unemployment, poverty, insecurity, and social instability.

It is time to move beyond programmes that simply distribute money without adequately preparing beneficiaries to identify opportunities, understand markets, deploy technology, manage enterprises, and build sustainable businesses.

Funding without knowledge may be wasted. Skills without market access may remain dormant. Education without productivity may deepen unemployment. Economic growth without broad-based participation may increase inequality.

Nigeria must therefore convert its vast human capital and abundant natural resources — beyond oil — into productive economic assets.

2. LESSONS FROM CHINA AND THE DANGOTE MODEL

China’s economic transformation provides important lessons for Nigeria. Its progress was driven not only by infrastructure and foreign investment, but also by sustained investments in technical education, industrial skills, entrepreneurship, manufacturing capacity, technology transfer, and the machinery required to convert raw materials into finished products.

Here at home, we are already seeing what is possible. The Dangote Refinery has significantly reduced our dependence on imported petroleum products and is saving Nigeria billions in foreign exchange. This is the power of homegrown, large-scale entrepreneurship.

China did not become a global economic force merely by exporting natural resources. It built an ecosystem that enabled individuals, small businesses, and large industries to manufacture products and serve domestic and international markets.

Nigeria must replicate and scale this model. We need more Dangote-like entrepreneurs across agriculture, manufacturing, energy, technology, and services.

We produce cocoa but import chocolate. We produce crude oil but until recently remained heavily dependent on imported petroleum-derived products. We grow agricultural commodities, yet import processed foods and consumer goods that could be manufactured locally.

A nation that continually exports raw materials and imports finished products is exporting jobs, industries, knowledge, technology, and wealth.

3. PROPOSAL: NATIONAL SMART MACHINERY, INNOVATION AND PRODUCTIVITY EXPO

I respectfully propose that your administration establish an annual National Smart Machinery, Innovation and Productivity Expo.

The Expo should bring together manufacturers of affordable processing machinery, Nigerian inventors, technology developers, universities, polytechnics, technical institutions, farmers, cooperatives, entrepreneurs, investors, financial institutions, government agencies, business development service providers, and young innovators from every state.

Its central objective should be to demonstrate practical machinery and technologies capable of converting Nigeria’s raw materials into competitive finished products.

Every state should identify its major human and natural resources, products that can be developed, machinery required, available markets, and entrepreneurs capable of building sustainable businesses.

The Expo must not end as another ceremonial exhibition. It should become a national platform for enterprise creation, machinery acquisition, technology transfer, industrial financing, market connections, local manufacturing, and measurable job creation.

4. ENTREPRENEURS MUST SOLVE NATIONAL PROBLEMS

Nigeria’s socio-economic challenges should become opportunities for enterprise and innovation.

Entrepreneurs should be deliberately mobilised to provide solutions in agriculture, food processing, renewable energy, waste recycling, housing, transportation, healthcare, education, security technology, water management, digital services, and climate-smart development.

Government cannot employ every Nigerian, but it can build an enabling environment in which Nigerians establish productive enterprises, employ others, and contribute meaningfully to national development.

Entrepreneurship should not be regarded merely as an alternative for people who cannot find paid employment. It should be recognised as a primary driver of productivity, economic inclusion, national development, and sustainable prosperity.

5. NATIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION INITIATIVE

The National Entrepreneurship Education Initiative (NEEI) was created to kick-start massive and structured entrepreneurship education across Nigeria.

Its purpose is to help Nigerians — particularly students and young people — develop entrepreneurial mindsets, identify opportunities, solve problems, and transform ideas into sustainable products, services, and enterprises.

I respectfully urge your administration to consider the national adoption and strategic integration of entrepreneurship education across primary and secondary schools, universities, polytechnics, technical institutions, NYSC programmes, government youth interventions, women’s empowerment programmes, and community development centres.

Entrepreneurship education must no longer be treated as an optional subject. It should become a national economic survival and transformation strategy.

6. A PRESIDENTIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

Mr President, I respectfully recommend the establishment of a comprehensive Presidential Entrepreneurship Development Agenda with the following priorities:
1. Declare entrepreneurship development a national priority
2. Establish a Presidential Council on Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Productivity
3. Integrate practical entrepreneurship education into Nigeria’s educational system
4. Profile Nigerian youths according to education, skills, talents, and entrepreneurial potential
5. Connect government interventions to training, mentorship, technology, machinery, finance, and markets
6. Establish enterprise incubation and production centres across the 774 local government areas
7. Organise an annual National Smart Machinery, Innovation and Productivity Expo
8. Support locally manufactured machinery and indigenous technological solutions
9. Develop enterprise programmes around each state’s resources and economic opportunities
10. Measure new enterprises, sustainable jobs, local production, import substitution, and export growth

THE PATH TO A $1 TRILLION ECONOMY

A $1 trillion economy cannot be achieved through projections and government revenue alone. It must be reflected in productive citizens, competitive enterprises, functioning factories, processed agricultural products, technological innovations, expanding exports, and millions of sustainable jobs.

Nigeria will not become truly prosperous merely by having more money in government accounts. Nigeria will prosper when millions of citizens possess the knowledge, tools, machinery, financing, and market access required to create economic value.

Mr President, your administration has an opportunity to lead the greatest entrepreneurship revolution in Africa’s history.

Let us turn our students into problem-solvers, unemployed graduates into innovators, artisans into industrial producers, farmers into agro-processors, raw materials into finished products, and our vast population into a productive national force.

Economic growth without entrepreneurship growth is poverty in disguise.

If entrepreneurship development becomes a central pillar of your economic agenda, the proposed $1 trillion economy will become more inclusive, productive, sustainable, and beneficial to ordinary Nigerians.

The time for massive entrepreneurship education is now.
The time to convert Nigeria’s human potential into productive capital is now.
The time to build a nation of job creators, manufacturers, innovators, and exporters is now.

May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria and grant your administration the wisdom and courage to build a productive, inclusive, and prosperous nation.

Yours faithfully,

Olubunmi Oluwadare, FG-BDSP
FG Licensed National Business Development Service Provider
Convener, National. Entrepreneurship Education Initiative (NEEI)
Founder, http://www.uni-preneur.com www.getajob.ng.
Author, I SEE MONEY IN AFRICA. [email protected]. WhatsApp 0809 945 2398