The Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics Ltd/Gte has urged the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to ensure that their new fiscal-monetary coordination translates economic growth into tangible improvements in Nigerians’ living standards.
The Alliance made the call in an analysis titled, “The Wedding of the Two Elephants: Why Nigeria’s Fiscal-Monetary Truce Must Now Marry Growth to Development,” following the September 18, 2026 Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Ministry of Finance and the CBN. It commended the two institutions for agreeing to align macroeconomic assumptions, improve information sharing, coordinate government financing and cash management, and work together on inflation while maintaining the CBN’s operational independence.
According to the Alliance, the agreement represents a significant shift from the longstanding disconnect between fiscal and monetary policy authorities.
It, however, warned that coordination alone would not be sufficient unless the resulting policies translated economic growth into poverty reduction, jobs and improved access to basic services.
The group cited Nigeria’s 4.43 per cent year-on-year GDP growth in the second quarter of 2026 and 3.87 per cent growth recorded in 2025, but noted that real GDP per capita grew by only 1.9 per cent in 2025.
It also referenced the 2022 National Multidimensional Poverty Index, which found that 62.9 per cent of Nigerians, equivalent to 132.92 million people, were multidimensionally poor.
The Alliance said the World Bank had projected that about 52.5 per cent of Nigerians would live below its international poverty line in 2025.
It acknowledged recent improvements in the economy, including the decline in annual-average inflation from 33.2 per cent in 2024 to an estimated 23 per cent in 2025, international reserves of $45.5 billion at the end of 2025 and Nigeria’s restoration to FTSE Russell Frontier Market status from September 21, 2026.
However, it warned that high government borrowing costs remained a major constraint on economic development.
According to the group, Federal Government interest payments accounted for an estimated 53.2 per cent of government revenue in 2025, compared with 40.8 per cent in 2024.
