BOI, NIPSS partner to drive Nigeria’s $1trn economy target

The Bank of Industry (BOI) and the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) are partnering to advance Nigeria’s ambition of growing its economy to $1 trillion by 2030, with a national summit on the Orange Economy scheduled to hold in Lagos in October.

The partnership was announced on Monday when the NIPSS Director-General, Ayo Omotayo, led members of the organising committee of the National Summit and Exhibition on Orange Economy to the BOI headquarters in Lagos.

BOI Managing Director, Olasupo Olusi, said the bank was ready to work with NIPSS to ensure the success of the summit, stressing that the institution wanted to be more than a sponsor of the event.

“We don’t just want to be a sponsor but partners. We want to play a key role in forming the whole event and all the activities around it,” Olusi said.

The summit, scheduled for October 6 to 8 at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, National Theatre, Lagos, is expected to examine the potential of Nigeria’s creative and cultural industries to drive economic growth, investment and employment.

Olusi said BOI’s interest in the initiative was linked to its extensive involvement in financing Nigeria’s creative sector.

“We are experts. I have a whole creative division that finances the creative sector,” he said, adding that the bank’s experience positioned it to contribute meaningfully to the summit.

He urged the organisers to also bring other institutions on board, noting that achieving the country’s economic ambitions required broad-based collaboration.

Omotayo said the Orange Economy summit was part of NIPSS’s efforts to provide evidence-based recommendations on how Nigeria can achieve President Bola Tinubu’s $1 trillion economy target by 2030.