Industry Minister laments over ₦2.72bn capital allocation to drive trade, investment agenda

2026-02-09 - 18:39

By Henry Umoru The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Jumoke Oduwole, at the Senate yesterday, lamented Monday over the proposed ₦2.72 billion capital allocation for the ministry in 2026. The Minister who made the lamentation during the budget defence session she had with Senator Umar Sadiq, APC, Kwara North, led Senate Committee on Trade and Investment, disclosed that the amount was grossly inadequate to deliver the scale of programmes required to drive Nigeria’s industrialization, trade expansion, and investment-attracting agenda. Oduwole, who outlined the ministry’s achievements over the past two years, arguing that the results recorded so far justified increased capital support, disclosed that Nigeria recorded about $21 billion in capital importation in the first 10 months of 2025, compared to $12 billion in 2024 and under $4 billion in 2023. She attributed the improvement to deliberate ministry interventions, including the development of over $5 billion in bankable investment projects, sector-focused deal rooms and Nigeria’s first Domestic Investor Summit. The Minister who appealed to the National Assembly for a targeted increase in capital funding stressed that without adequate resources, the ministry’s ability to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the push for a trillion-dollar economy would be severely constrained. According to her, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is central to diversifying the economy away from oil, growing non-oil exports, stimulating domestic production and attracting both local and foreign investment. She said, “The proposed capital allocation of ₦2.72 billion will be a stretch in meeting the full demands of our programmes and capital projects,” Oduwole told lawmakers. “Given the scope of our responsibilities, we respectfully seek the committee’s support for targeted enhancement of our capital allocation to enable us to effectively deliver on our mandate.” The minister who noted that the ministry had also resolved more than 50 major investor bottlenecks and undertaken over 100 bilateral investment engagements with countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Japan, disclosed that sustained engagement under the Nigeria–UK Economic and Trade Partnership resulted in UK investors accounting for about 65 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign capital inflows in 2025. On trade performance, Oduwole revealed that Nigeria recorded a trade surplus in 2025, with total trade value estimated at ₦113 trillion in the first three quarters of the year, while exports grew by 11 per cent year-on-year to approximately $6.1 billion, the highest in the country’s history. In his remarks, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment, Senator Umar Sadiq, who acknowledged the ministry’s strategic importance to the administration’s economic vision, said that achieving a trillion-dollar economy would be impossible without strong performance from the industry, trade, and investment sectors. The Senator said, “We are all aware of the renewal agenda of Mr. President, which is essentially to ensure that we have a trillion-dollar economy.” He, however, emphasised that the National Assembly’s support would be tied to transparency, accountability and measurable impact, adding that lawmakers were more interested in outcomes than rhetoric. Vanguard News