Market Update: Peterside outlines practical steps to revive Nigeria’s economy – Full Analysis

Former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside, has outlined practical steps he believes can help reposition Nigeria’s struggling economy.

Peterside argued that for the country to regain economic stability and growth, reforms must begin “where friction is highest, and impact is widest.”

According to him, trade and logistics represent one such critical sector. He emphasised that the efficient movement of goods is crucial to national productivity.

“If goods move faster and more predictably, firms become competitive, prices stabilise, and exports become realistic,” he said.

Peterside spoke at the first International Management Conference organised by the Department of Business Administration at Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt.

He identified public procurement and infrastructure delivery as another pressure point, saying that if procurement cycles are shortened and leakages reduced, public spending would translate into tangible outcomes, “real roads, real power projects, real facilities, and real maintenance.”

The management expert argued that predictable compliance and easier onboarding would enable businesses to access finance, expand operations, create jobs, and contribute sustainably to the tax base.

He added that agriculture and agro-processing remain viable growth anchors, noting that by reducing post-harvest losses, strengthening aggregation, standardising quality, and improving market linkages, Nigeria can unlock jobs and strengthen food security.

Delivering a keynote address titled “Business Re-engineering: A Catalyst for Economic Development,” Peterside maintained that the core question of development is not merely what a nation possesses, but how effectively it organises, produces, distributes, and scales its resources into jobs and public value.

According to him, Nigeria operates far below its economic potential, making business re-engineering imperative.

He explained that Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) goes beyond incremental improvement, describing it as a fundamental rethinking and radical redesign of core processes to achieve dramatic gains in cost, quality, service, and speed.