Nigeria And Africa’s Leadership Moment: From Boardroom to Nation-Building

GUEST COLUMNIST By Kola Adesina

Powering Sustainable Transformation Through Enterprise
Keynote Address by

Your Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, Dr. Shamsuddeen Usman, Chairman, Ministry of Finance Incorporated, Distinguished leaders, captains of industry, media men and women, colleagues, and friends.
Good morning. It is both an honour and a responsibility to speak at this defining moment in our nation’s and our continent’s journey.

I. Confronting the Truth of Where We Stand

Given where we stand today, as a nation and as a continent, it is time to tell ourselves the truth. Not to assign blame, but to take responsibility. Not to lament, but to rebuild. Africa’s corporate leaders must now step beyond the boardroom to champion governance reform, inclusive investment, and innovation ecosystems that transform enterprise into a purposeful engine of sustainable national development.

II. A Continent in Shadow

Imagine the world at night: a vast landscape lit by billions of lights.
One in every five of those lights should shine from Africa. Yet, when you look from space, you see only a faint glow. That dimness is not for lack of fuel; it is because the wires that connect our potential to productivity are still broken.

Our task, therefore, is simple yet profound: to connect the wires, ignite the current, and let Africa shine in full brightness.

III. The Big Idea: From Boardroom Logic to National Transformation

After two decades in various boardrooms, one truth stands firm: corporate prosperity without national progress is hollow. In our companies, we have mastered growth: strategy, risk, accountability, performance.

Yet, beyond the boardroom, our neighbours remain in darkness, our youths search for work, and our entrepreneurs struggle to survive. It is time the nation benefits from the wisdom that drives the boardroom. Just as a successful enterprise aligns strategy, accountability, innovation, governance, and performance, so too must a successful nation.

IV. Lessons from Singapore

Consider Singapore. At independence, it chose to run its nation like a corporation: driven by efficiency, meritocracy, and measurable outcomes. Through statutory boards and commercially managed state investments, decisions were made with speed, clarity, and discipline.

Nigeria — and indeed Africa — can do the same: apply corporate discipline to public purpose.

V. Appreciating Visionary Leadership

At this juncture, it is important to acknowledge and appreciate the deliberate efforts, courageous policies, and strategic foresight of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.

Through initiatives such as the Renewed Hope Agenda, the Macroeconomic and Fiscal Reforms, the Infrastructure Funding and Power Sector Revamp Initiatives, and the ongoing drive to liberalize markets and unlock productivity, Mr. President has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to long-term national growth and sustainable development.

His leadership is re-engineering Nigeria’s economic architecture: from fuel-subsidy removal and exchange-rate unification to the bold acceleration of public-private collaboration in infrastructure, power, and human-capital investment.

These policies may be tough, but they are strategic foundations: the kind that turn short-term pain into long-term prosperity. They reflect a clear understanding that no nation can grow on populism; only on productivity.

VI. The Enterprise Landscape of Nigeria

In Nigeria today, over 39 million micro, small, and medium enterprises generate nearly half of GDP and provide up to 88 percent of all employment.

They are the true engine of our economy, yet the roads they travel, both literally and figuratively, are riddled with potholes.

Power remains unreliable. Finance remains scarce. Policy remains uncertain.

Our MSMEs face a N13 trillion financing gap — about 17 percent of GDP. These are not signs of failure; they are signs of an economy waiting to be properly wired.

VII. The Balance Sheet of a Nation

In the boardroom, we celebrate profit and growth.
But outside those walls, the national bottom line still bleeds red ink.

For the stock price of Nigeria Plc to rise, the balance sheet of Enterprise Nigeria must be positive in all critical areas, from governance to infrastructure, from education to energy, from trust to transparency. That is the equation that determines the true value of our nation in the global marketplace.

VIII. From Profit to Purpose — My Personal Journey

Early in my career, I thought success meant a healthy balance sheet. If profits rose, I celebrated.

Then I realised — even as the company thrived, the nation’s fundamentals remained weak.
The lights were still off.
The youth were still idle.

The suppliers were still struggling.

So we began to act differently.

Through the Sahara Regenerator Technical Programme, we trained 120 young Nigerians in solar installation and metering technology. Watching them light homes and power communities taught me something profound: when we invest in people, we invest in prosperity.

That was my awakening: the walls of the boardroom are not boundaries — they are launching pads.

IX. When Policy Meets Purpose

Consider the US $200 million partnership between the Rural Electrification Agency and WeLight: to build 400 mini-grids and 50 metro-grids, bringing power to up to 2 million people. That is not just a power project. It is proof that when policy meets private capital, darkness turns to productivity. Each bulb lit extends the working day, powers a business, and illuminates a child’s future. That is enterprise serving purpose.

X. Dispelling Myths

We must end the myth that development is solely government’s duty and that business exists only for profit. A business disconnected from public purpose cannot prosper for long. The real economy thrives where enterprise and nation work as partners, not as strangers.

XI. Three Clear Priorities for Sustainable Transformation

We do not need ten complicated steps. We need three deliberate priorities.

1. Fix the Rules

Champion smart regulation and investment incentives that remove friction for MSMEs. Streamline permits, harmonise taxes, and strengthen credit-guarantee schemes. Use your influence as business leaders to advocate reforms — one regulation at a time. If every leader here fixed just one obstacle in their value chain, imagine the compound impact across the nation.

2. Wire Inclusion into Cashflows

Enterprise is not sustainable unless it is inclusive. Women- and youth-led MSMEs are too often excluded from finance and supply chains. Set inclusion targets. Pay your small suppliers promptly — within 15 to 30 days. Co-invest in reliable energy solutions for your production clusters. Your success is tied to theirs — and theirs, to ours.

3. Build the Innovation Commons

True productivity grows from shared knowledge and collaboration. Partner with universities. Sponsor incubators and accelerators. Open part of your data or infrastructure to start-ups under controlled conditions. Africa holds one-fifth of humanity. It is time to match that demographic power with innovation power.

When we build ecosystems instead of silos, we transform a continent of hustlers into a continent of producers.

XII. Alignment: The Fourth Imperative

Beyond these three, one more imperative stands out — alignment.

The organised private sector must actively collaborate with the government in selecting and aligning priorities: to enable big-leap results in resource allocation for infrastructure, social-impact projects, and human-capital development.

Africa — nay, Nigeria — will record significant progress only when this alignment between public purpose and private capability becomes deliberate, structured, and sustained.

XIII. The Call to Leadership

We began with a continent in shadow. We saw the pain of entrepreneurs struggling in the dark, the myth of government monopoly over development, and the gap between business density and productivity. We charted a way forward: Fix the rules, wire inclusion. Build the commons. Align priorities.

Now comes the decisive question, not can we? But will we? No one else will build our prosperity for us.
We, who sit around boardroom tables, hold the keys.

So I ask you:

Will you use your influence to reform the rules?
Will you design your business models to be inclusive? Will you invest in innovation ecosystems?
Will you align your priorities with national purpose?

If each of us answers yes, sincerely, deliberately, consistently, then the next time we gather, Africa will no longer be the continent of dim lights in the night sky, but the brightest constellation on earth.

Thank you.
May God bless Nigeria, and may God bless Africa. •A keynote address by Dr. Kola Adesina, MFR, FN