Nigeria has been grappling with the adverse realities of economic reforms embarked upon by the Federal Government since May 2023, and the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, reckons that focusing on boosting the non-oil alternatives that will aid full diversification of the national economy is now more critical than ever.

Sanwo-Olu, who delivered the 36th Convocation Lecture at Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) in Yaba, Lagos, said decades of dependence on importation of finished goods and export of a single commodity had made foreign exchange the sole determinant of the nation’s economic stability, stressing that the same factor remained a fundamental contributor to the current economic situation.

Sanwo-Olu emphasised the need to harness export potential and develop non-oil commodities markets in order to balance the shortfall in foreign exchange earnings.

In the lecture themed “Developing Exportable Alternatives for Nigeria’s Economic Recovery”, Sanwo-Olu said the historic oil boom of the early 1970s met Nigeria unprepared, and the sudden influx of petrodollars made the nation shift from exporting agricultural products, such as groundnut, cotton, cocoa and oil palm, to relying on food imports, thus losing its potential to become one of the richest and most prosperous countries in the world.

To break the cycle of underperformance of non-oil alternatives, the Governor said the country must prioritise export growth in three key non-oil areas—agriculture, technology and creative arts. He said it was time for the nation to rise up and convert potential in these areas into reality.

“As we gradually but steadily make our way into the phase of economic recovery, one of the most important things we can do as a people and a nation is to increase the focus on our export capacity and potential. The fundamental issue at the root of our lingering economic situation is the crisis of foreign exchange,” Sanwo-Olu said.

“This crisis takes two main forms. First is the monopoly of crude oil and gas on our foreign exchange earnings. Our over-dependence in this way has done far more harm than good to the economy, and to our mindsets as a people. The volatility of our foreign exchange earnings has had a negative impact on currency stability, while also complicating other problems, like inflation.

“It is clear that diversifying our export base from oil and gas is an urgent imperative for a country that is serious about growing its economy and lifting tens of millions of its people out of poverty. It has been urgent for decades. Yet somehow, we have carried on as if all has been well and as if we might somehow be able to magically achieve economic growth and prosperity without laying the right foundations,” he said.

President Bola Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu said, assumed leadership at the most important moment in the nation’s journey when tough and difficult decisions needed to be taken to shift the country away from the route of economic underperformance to the path of productivity and prosperity.

Sanwo-Olu said the Tinubu-led government had recorded significant progress in non-oil export, citing current data by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).

He, however, said the full value of the export market was far greater than what the nation was earning from it.

Cocoa beans, he said, accounted for 23.18 per cent of the $2.7 billion earned in the first half of 2024 from exports, but the commodity, he added, was exported unprocessed. This, he said, had shortchanged the country of the value derivable from the product.

“There is no value or pride in exporting raw materials to the world. If we keep exporting them raw for other countries to process, they will reap the bulk of the value derivable from these products,” Sanwo-Olu said.

Beyond exporting processed agricultural products, he said Afrobeats and Nollywood were among the biggest cultural exports out of Nigeria.

He said local music had influenced and transformed the international creative market, earning local artists global recognitions, such as the Grammys. This, he said, was a testament to the scale of the attention coming to the local creative industry.

“We must highlight one of our fastest-growing and most promising export segments—our arts and creative industries,” he said.