FG plans mandatory impact checks before major economic policy changes

The federal government wants major economic policy changes to go through a mandatory impact assessment first, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Taiwo Oyedele, has said.

He announced the plan on Monday at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, while presenting a draft Nigeria economic policy framework for public consultation.

Under the proposal, anyone pushing a policy change would have to explain the problem it is meant to solve, the evidence behind it, who benefits, who carries the cost, and when the policy would end.

Oyedele said the aim is to cut the uncertainty that businesses and investors face when rules keep changing.

"Policy uncertainty is an invisible tax on enterprise, and unlike most taxes, it generates no revenue for the government," he said. He added that it only destroys value and discourages investment.

He said Nigeria's problem has not been a shortage of ideas but the lack of a lasting economic philosophy, consistent policymaking and disciplined implementation.

What the framework covers

The draft groups the country's economic priorities into seven areas: stability, productivity, enterprise, capital, people, markets and institutions.

It would also introduce an annual national economic scorecard, published on or before October 1 each year, tracking real wages, productive employment and poverty.

Oyedele said gross domestic product (GDP) growth matters, but income per person matters more. Progress, he argued, should be judged by household incomes, jobs and how productive businesses are, not by headline figures alone.

On trade, he said tariffs should help local industries grow rather than protect inefficient businesses forever. "A tariff must serve as a runway for local industry to take off, never a permanent shelter from competition," he said.

The chairman of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, Niyi Yusuf, said no single institution can deliver transformation alone. He called on government to keep reforms steady, states to improve their investment climates, and businesses to invest and create decent jobs.

What happens next

Oyedele said the draft is not a development plan or the manifesto of any one government. It is meant to set enduring principles that outlast successive administrations.

Public consultation opens on November 27, 2026, with Nigerians invited to answer 17 questions through the Federal Ministry of Finance's website.

After that, the draft will go to the Federal Executive Council for approval and to the National Economic Council for endorsement.

For ordinary Nigerians, the promise is fewer sudden policy shifts that push up costs for businesses and, in turn, prices for consumers. Whether that holds will depend on how strictly the rules are applied.