The Presidential Economic Advisory Council’s (PEAC) high‑stakes gambit to court legislative muscle for Nigeria’s faltering investment climate has exposed the yawning chasm between ambition and action at the heart of Abuja.
In a strategic, closed‑door session at the National Assembly last week, PEAC Director‑General Adeniyi Adeyemi pressed Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu to codify radical pro‑investment measures into law.
If heeded, this plea could mark the most dramatic realignment of Nigeria’s legislative agenda in a generation.
Adeyemi opened by warning that “potential alone does not attract capital,” insisting that “our policies must match our ambition.”
With Nigeria’s foreign exchange inflows still reeling from historic shortages — despite a surge to $2.3 billion in February under a CBN devaluation blitz — the DG argued that only binding legislative guarantees could shore up investor confidence.
Yet critics note that previous pledges dating back to the Obasanjo era failed spectacularly: FDI plunged by 42.3% in 2024 to just $1.08 billion, even as portfolio inflows more than doubled.
Kalu played the consummate host, congratulating the executive on recent fiscal reforms — notably the exchange‑rate liberalisation that prompted Fitch’s upgrade of Nigeria’s long‑term foreign‑currency issuer default rating to “B.”
But the Deputy Speaker was quick to remind Adeyemi that such commendations ring hollow without statutory reinforcement.
“This meeting is the bridge between national ambition and actionable policy,” Kalu declared, promising to “provide legislative backing for initiatives that drive investment, job creation, and long‑term growth.”
The session laid bare two uncomfortable truths. First, successive administrations have depended on presidential decrees and central‑bank fiat to engineer confidence, only to see flimsily‑constructed policies unravel amid political inertia.
Second, Nigeria’s broader balance‑of‑payments turnaround — a $6.83 billion surplus in 2024 — masks a perilous over‑reliance on volatile portfolio inflows, rather than durable FDI in manufacturing and infrastructure.
Adeyemi offered a partial salve: the launch of the World Investment Summit in Abuja from 10–14 November 2025.
He billed it as “Nigeria’s moment to rise, to show that we can host global business leaders on equal footing with Dubai or Singapore.” But sceptics voice a familiar refrain: summits glitter, policies endure.
As one senior legislator confided off record, “We’ve seen glossy conferences before. What we need is a clear pipeline from law‑making to bank‑making.”
The stakes could not be higher. With GDP growth sluggish at 2.9% in 2024 and inflation surging past 30%, Nigeria faces a choice between transformative reform or prolonged stagnation.
Should Kalu and his colleagues embed Adeyemi’s proposals into law — including strengthened investor‑protection clauses and tax incentives over five years — Nigeria may yet reverse decades of legislative drift.
But however “strategic” this rapprochement, the gulf between bold rhetoric and tangible statutes remains.
Until the “bridge” between National Assembly and Presidency is paved with enforceable legislation — rather than press releases — Nigeria’s grand investment narrative will struggle to transcend self‑fulfilling prophecy.
