Nigerians are working harder, but that does not necessarily mean businesses are becoming more productive.
Across the country, manufacturers contend with energy costs, distributors navigate difficult logistics, retailers operate on increasingly thin margins, and small businesses manage the daily realities of expensive capital and weakening consumer purchasing power. Yet, despite all this effort, an important economic question remains: are Nigerian enterprises becoming more productive?
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), in its Nigeria Private Sector Outlook 2026, describes productivity as one of the defining challenges facing Nigerian businesses.
The report notes that real GDP growth improved from 3.4 percent in 2024 to 3.9 percent in 2025, while inflation moderated and the exchange rate became relatively more stable. Yet these improvements have not translated sufficiently into broad-based improvements in firm-level productivity.
The reasons are familiar. High energy costs, limited access to affordable finance, infrastructure gaps, insecurity and logistics inefficiencies continue to place what NESG describes as a “production ceiling” on Nigerian businesses.
