The Northern Christian Youth Professionals (NCYP) has endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s bid for a second term in 2027, saying continuity in economic policy is essential to consolidate ongoing reforms and translate improving macroeconomic performance into jobs, investment and higher living standards.
The group said Nigeria had reached a critical stage in its reform journey where the focus must now shift from economic stabilisation to inclusive prosperity.
In a statement signed by its National Chairman, Isaac Abrak, on Tuesday, NCYP said the latest assessment by the World Bank reinforced the need to sustain the reforms rather than reverse course.
The World Bank recently reported that economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa was gaining momentum, supported by improved macroeconomic resilience, stronger domestic demand and investment. It also upgraded growth forecasts for several countries, including Nigeria.
However, the global lender warned that stronger growth alone would not be enough to substantially reduce extreme poverty or create sufficient jobs for the region’s rapidly expanding labour force.
NCYP said the warning captured the central challenge confronting the Tinubu administration in the next phase of its economic programme.
The group was reacting to President Tinubu’s Independence Day address on October 1, in which the President declared that “the emergency treatment is over” and “the foundation has been repaired,” while shifting the government’s economic priority towards achieving “shared and widespread prosperity.”
According to NCYP, the next phase must ensure that the gains from economic reforms are reflected in the daily lives of Nigerians.
The World Bank’s latest country assessment reported that Nigeria’s macroeconomic performance improved further in 2026, with real gross domestic product growing by 4.2 per cent in the first half of the year, compared with 3.9 per cent during the corresponding period a year earlier.
The bank, however, cautioned that growth remained insufficient to generate enough productive jobs and significantly reduce poverty, stressing the need for increased private investment, higher productivity, human capital development and job creation.
NCYP said Nigeria’s economic strategy must therefore move decisively from stabilisation to broad-based opportunity.
“Nigeria must now move from reform to prosperity, from growth to jobs, and from jobs to poverty reduction,” the group said.
It also cited the National Bureau of Statistics’ latest GDP report, which showed that the economy expanded by 4.43 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, up from 3.89 per cent in the first quarter.
While describing the growth trajectory as encouraging, NCYP said headline economic indicators would only become meaningful when Nigerians began to experience tangible improvements in employment, income and living standards.
The organisation called for youth development to remain at the centre of the next phase of the economic agenda, given Nigeria’s large and rapidly growing young population.
It cited the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND), noting that more than one million students had gained access to tertiary education financing.
NCYP also endorsed proposed reforms to the National Youth Service Corps, arguing that a more productive national service programme could equip graduates with specialised skills in agriculture, medicine, education, technology, digital innovation, infrastructure, the green economy, entrepreneurship and the creative industries.
The group said Nigeria’s youthful population should be regarded as an economic asset rather than merely a demographic challenge.
“With education, skills, financing and the right economic environment, our young people can become entrepreneurs, skilled professionals, job creators and drivers of industrialisation,” it said.
NCYP outlined what it described as a pathway to sustainable prosperity: economic reforms should create stability; stability should attract investment; education and skills should expand opportunities; enterprise should create businesses and jobs; and industrialisation should deliver sustained prosperity.
It said the strategy was particularly important for Northern Nigeria, where economic policies must create pathways for young people to convert skills into enterprise, enterprise into jobs and jobs into sustainable livelihoods.
The group noted that the World Bank had similarly identified the creation of more and better private-sector jobs as central to Nigeria’s long-term prosperity, alongside competitiveness, private capital mobilisation, human capital development and resilience.
It added that although recent reforms had strengthened macroeconomic stability, household incomes had yet to fully recover and poverty remained high, making it imperative to consolidate stabilisation gains while accelerating inclusive growth.
Against this backdrop, NCYP said it had resolved to support Tinubu’s re-election in 2027, with the decision anchored on continuity and consolidation of the administration’s economic reforms.
“It is against this background that NCYP supports the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in 2027, with our position anchored on policy continuity and the need to consolidate the economic reforms while moving decisively into the next phase of job creation, human-capital development and industrialisation,” Abrak said.
