₦2.72bn Allocation Too Small to Drive Trade, Investment Agenda — Oduwole Tells SenateBy UNDIE EMMANUEL Abuja | February 9, 2026
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mrs. Jumoke Oduwole, has warned that the ₦2.72 billion proposed for her ministry in the 2026 budget is grossly inadequate to drive Nigeria’s trade, industrialisation and investment ambitions.
Oduwole raised the concern on Monday while defending the ministry’s 2026 budget proposal before the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment, stressing that the allocation falls far short of what is required to support President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the push toward a trillion-dollar economy.
According to the minister, inadequate capital funding would severely constrain the ministry’s ability to expand trade, stimulate industrial growth, diversify exports and attract both domestic and foreign investment.
“The proposed capital allocation of ₦2.72bn will be a stretch in meeting the full demands of our programmes and capital projects,” Oduwole told lawmakers.
“Given the scope of our responsibilities, we respectfully seek the committee’s support for a targeted enhancement of our capital allocation.”
She noted that the ministry plays a central role in diversifying Nigeria’s economy away from oil dependence by promoting non-oil exports, boosting domestic production and facilitating investment across key sectors.
Senate Backs Strategic Role, Demands Results
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Trade and Investment, Senator Umar Sadiq, acknowledged the ministry’s critical role in achieving the administration’s economic objectives.
“We are all aware of the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President, which is essentially to ensure that Nigeria attains a trillion-dollar economy,” Sadiq said.
“The Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment is a major partner in achieving this objective outside the oil sector.”
However, he stressed that legislative support would be tied to transparency, accountability and measurable impact, noting that lawmakers were more interested in outcomes than rhetoric.
Similarly, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Industry, Senator Francis Fadahunsi, urged the ministry to clearly demonstrate the real-life impact of its agencies on Nigerians, particularly in areas of job creation, export growth and industrial development.
Investment, Trade Gains Highlighted
In her presentation, Oduwole outlined what she described as significant achievements over the past two years, arguing that the results justified increased capital support.
She disclosed that capital importation into Nigeria rose to about $21 billion in the first 10 months of 2025, up from $12 billion in 2024 and less than $4 billion in 2023.
According to her, the growth was driven by deliberate interventions such as:
Development of over $5 billion in bankable investment projects
Sector-focused investment deal rooms
Nigeria’s first Domestic Investor Summit
She added that the ministry resolved more than 50 major investor bottlenecks and conducted over 100 bilateral investment engagements with countries including the United Kingdom, United States, United Arab Emirates, Brazil and Japan.
Oduwole further revealed that sustained engagement under the Nigeria–UK Economic and Trade Partnership led to UK investors accounting for about 65 per cent of Nigeria’s foreign capital inflows in 2025.
On trade performance, she said Nigeria recorded a trade surplus in 2025, with total trade value estimated at ₦113 trillion in the first three quarters of the year. Exports, she added, grew by 11 per cent year-on-year to approximately $6.1 billion, the highest level in the country’s history.
She attributed the gains to export facilitation measures, expanded export warehouses, new air-cargo corridors across Africa and improved implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which helped boost Nigeria’s intra-African trade by 14 per cent.
In the industrial sector, the minister disclosed that special economic zones generated over $500 million in export revenue and created more than 20,000 direct jobs in 2025.
She also cited the Federal Executive Council’s approval of the National Industrial Policy and Nigeria’s successful bids to host CANEX 2026 and the Intra-Africa Trade Fair in 2027 as key milestones.
Funding Gaps Remain a Major Concern
Despite these achievements, Oduwole warned that funding constraints were already limiting the ministry’s effectiveness.
She revealed that while personnel and overhead allocations were fully utilised in 2024 and 2025, capital releases had been inconsistent, noting that no capital funds were released to the ministry in 2025.
Senate committee members expressed concern that the 2026 proposal appeared to be largely a rollover of the 2025 budget, with limited provision for new capital initiatives, contrary to federal budget guidelines.
Responding, the minister maintained that even within the rollover framework, enhanced capital funding was essential.
“Our ministry is programme-led and service-oriented. We are not a revenue-generating ministry in the conventional sense,” she said.
“We facilitate investment, resolve regulatory bottlenecks, open markets for Nigerian products and support domestic investors. To do this effectively, we need capital resources.”
She added that the ministry plans to intensify non-oil export promotion, deepen AfCFTA implementation, roll out digital investor and trade facilitation platforms, and extend trade and investment support to sub-national levels across the six geopolitical zones in 2026—initiatives she said would be difficult under the current capital envelope.
The senators assured the minister that her concerns would be carefully reviewed as scrutiny of the 2026 Appropriation Bill continues, noting the growing pressure from MDAs for adequate funding.
They pledged that critical economic ministries would be properly funded to drive growth, create jobs and diversify Nigeria’s economy.
