Workshop on fostering productive capacities and structural economic transformation in Nigeria

Statistical, Methodological and Computational Aspects of the Productive Capacities Index (PCI) for Technical Experts

Building on Nigeria’s potential, the national workshop will discuss the role of productive capacities and structural economic transformation. It will examine how productive capacities and structural transformation can best be placed at the centre of Nigeria’s national policies and strategies. It will also introduce UNCTAD’s Productive Capacities Index (PCI) as the critical tool to measure sectoral gaps in domestic productive capacities and to subsequently formulate adequate policy response and interventions.

UNCTAD’s assessment shows the limited improvements of Nigeria’s scores across various PCI components over the years. The Nigerian overall PCI score in 2018 was 21.65, representing a marginal increase from 18.9 in 2010. In fact, the value of some indicators, namely, transportation, ICT, and natural capital, has slightly declined. Moreover, Nigeria scored below the African average in six out of the eight PCI components. The better performing areas were private sector and natural capital. The performance was particularly dragged down by weakness in structural change, given high dependency on the oil sector, and the transport sector, an effect of cumulative years of under-investment in infrastructure.

Specific issues to be examined during the national workshop include:

• Levels of productive capacities in Nigeria as compared to other developing economies;
• Utilisation of the Productive Capacities Index (PCI) as the tool to evaluate gaps in productive capacities and binding constraints to structural transformation;
• Challenges to fostering productive capacities, diversifying the national economy and accelerating structural transformation in Nigeria; 
• Successful experiences and best practices in policy formulation and implementation for productive capacities and structural economic transformation and their implications for Nigeria.

Participants of the national workshops will include senior government officials, national, regional, and international experts in the field of economic development and representatives of the private sector and civil society, including academic institutions in Nigeria.