AERE Urges Nigeria to Shift from GDP Growth to Human Development
The Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics (AERE) has called on the Federal Government to move beyond measuring progress mainly through Gross Domestic Product and place greater emphasis on improving the welfare, productivity and human capital of Nigerians.
The organisation made the call while reflecting on the recent Memorandum of Understanding between the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), describing the agreement as an important step toward stronger coordination between fiscal and monetary authorities.
AERE said the September 18, 2026 MoU, which covers aligned macroeconomic assumptions, structured information sharing, government financing, cash management and inflation management, could help prevent fiscal and monetary policies from working at cross purposes.
While acknowledging recent economic improvements, including stronger GDP growth, moderating inflation, higher external reserves and renewed investor confidence, the Alliance stressed that macroeconomic stability must translate into better living conditions for ordinary Nigerians.
AERE highlighted the gap between headline economic growth and household welfare, noting that millions of Nigerians remain multidimensionally poor despite improvements in national economic indicators.
The organisation also raised concerns over the Federal Government’s high interest-payment burden and the significant share of banking assets invested in government securities, arguing that these pressures can reduce the resources available for infrastructure, social services and private-sector credit.
To strengthen the impact of the fiscal-monetary partnership, AERE recommended the introduction of a Poverty Reduction Impact Dashboard to track how major policy decisions affect the bottom 40% of Nigerians.
It also proposed a pathway to reduce government interest payments to below 30% of revenue by 2028, stronger incentives for banks to lend to the private sector, and greater attention to the supply-side causes of inflation, particularly food, energy and logistics costs.
AERE further called for the fiscal-monetary coordination framework to be strengthened beyond political cycles and supported by clearer public communication explaining how major policy decisions affect household welfare.
The Alliance maintained that the success of the new partnership should ultimately be measured not only by GDP growth, inflation or financial-market performance, but by whether Nigerians experience more affordable food, improved access to credit, stronger employment opportunities and better living standards.
AERE concluded that:
“Growth is a means. Development — human, shared and visible — is the destination.”
The organisation urged policymakers to ensure that the new fiscal-monetary partnership becomes a turning point in Nigeria’s development strategy — from simply growing the economy to growing its people.
Alliance for Economic Research and Ethics (AERE)
From Impact to Insights.