An economic development expert has called for the urgent establishment of a National Revenue Regeneration and Financial Corporation to shield Nigeria from fiscal collapse and fast-track economic diversification.
Ja’afaru Sa’ad, chairman and founder of the Galadiman Ruwa Centre, made the call in an open memorandum to President Bola Tinubu.
Mr Sa’ad elaborated on the proposal in an interview in Zaria on Thursday.
He said Nigeria’s heavy dependence on crude oil revenues had become a strategic vulnerability, stressing that incremental reforms could no longer address the country’s widening economic risks.
Mr Sa’ad said the proposed NRRFC would serve as a national commercial command structure, mandated to restructure, commercialise, and revitalise dormant and underperforming government institutions into revenue-generating corporations.
According to Mr Sa’ad, the initiative is critical to achieving Nigeria’s 50 to 60 per cent diversification target by 2035 and reducing the country’s reliance on oil earnings, debt financing, and emergency fiscal interventions.
“With Nigeria’s population projected to hit 450 million by 2050, the current governance model is unsustainable.
Therefore, the state must transition into a revenue-producing system anchored on commercial discipline,” Mr Sa’ad explained.
He stated that several emerging and advanced economies had secured long-term growth by converting public assets into profitable enterprises, citing Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China, and India.
Mr Sa’ad highlighted Saudi Arabia’s SABIC as a case study, saying the strategic commercialisation of natural gas assets transformed the country into a global industrial player while creating massive employment.
The expert proposed a five-point “5R” framework (reset, restructure, revitalise, refinance, and retain).
According to Mr Sa’ad, this framework would guide the NRRFC as a core economic security institution focused on revenue retention and capital preservation.
He stressed that youths, women, and artificial intelligence must be structurally integrated into the diversification drive, advocating equity ownership rather than grant-based empowerment.
“Economic survival now depends on radical commercial re-engineering. Institutions must generate revenue, protect sovereignty,” Mr Sa’ad said.
(NAN)