The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) has warned of the dire consequences of persistent insecurity to the economy and investment.
The Group said no business plan can survive in a war zone, adding that no farmer will invest in a field they cannot safely reach and no infrastructure can generate value when it is perpetually under attack.
This was conveyed in a statement on Sunday issued by Ayanyinka Ayanlowo, Head, Strategic Communication and Advocacy, NESG.
The NESG assured that at the 32nd Nigerian Economic Summit (NES #32), with the theme, “Growth that Works: Delivering Jobs, Productivity and Shared Prosperity,” the Secure Nigeria sub-theme will place the restoration of safety and stability at the heart of the economic agenda.
Organised by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning and the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG), the Summit will hold on 26th and 27th October, 2026 at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
According to NESG, security is not a soft policy issue at the periphery of economic planning, as it is the foundational prerequisite for every other dimension of economic life.
Ayanlowo explained that the scale of Nigeria’s security challenge has real, measurable economic consequences.
According to the statement, “Farmers across the North-West, North-Central, and North-East zones have been displaced from their lands, collapsing local food production and contributing to food insecurity that now affects a significant proportion of the population.
“The World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organisation have repeatedly flagged Nigeria as one of the countries with the highest food insecurity levels on the continent.
“In the Niger Delta, oil theft — commonly referred to as crude oil bunkering — deprives Nigeria of a significant portion of its export revenues and has, at various points, reduced crude oil production substantially below official targets.
“Attacks on oil infrastructure compound these losses, triggering costly repairs and deterring the investment needed to expand productive capacity.
“Critical infrastructure attacks, particularly on power transmission equipment and telecommunications towers, impose costs that ripple across the entire economy.
“Every instance of a destroyed transformer or vandalised fibre cable degrades the productive environment for businesses, households, and communities that depend on electricity and connectivity to function.
“The relationship between security and food security in Nigeria has reached a critical point.
“Farmer-herder conflicts, banditry, and terrorist activity have displaced millions of agricultural households from highly productive regions.
“The North-West, which is historically one of Nigeria’s most important food-producing zones, has seen dramatic reductions in cultivated land as farmers abandon fields out of fear.”
The statement explained that NES #32 would examine the specific security interventions required to restore access to farmland and stabilise agrarian production in Nigeria’s most affected regions.
This, according to the statement, includes community-based security models, the strategic deployment of law enforcement in high-value agricultural corridors, technology-enabled early warning systems for conflict, and policy frameworks that address the underlying resource competition driving farmer-herder violence.
The NESG further pointed that Nigeria’s power and telecommunications infrastructure has long been a target for vandalism, theft, and deliberate attack.
“The consequences extend well beyond the immediate point of destruction. A damaged transmission tower disrupts electricity supply across entire grid sections.
“A destroyed telecommunications mast disconnects communities from mobile money, digital markets, emergency services, and the basic connectivity that modern economic participation requires.
“NES #32 will prioritise the development of a comprehensive critical infrastructure protection framework — one that combines physical security measures, community engagement strategies, rapid repair capacity, and severe legal deterrents for infrastructure attacks.
“The goal is to reduce the frequency and impact of attacks sufficiently to restore the investment confidence of infrastructure developers and operators.Oil theft remains one of the most economically damaging security challenges facing Nigeria.
“Estimates of losses from crude oil bunkering have at times reached hundreds of thousands of barrels per day, a staggering haemorrhage of public revenue and foreign exchange earnings. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), international oil companies, and independent operators have all cited security as a primary constraint on production growth and new investment.
“NES #32 will examine the governance, operational, and community-engagement approaches required to significantly reduce oil theft, including greater transparency in the upstream value chain, enhanced monitoring technologies, the economic inclusion of communities in the Niger Delta, and stronger enforcement against the domestic and international networks that enable crude oil theft at scale.”
Apart from the direct economic losses caused by insecurity, the NESG said, there is the subtler but equally damaging impact on investor confidence.
“Businesses, both domestic and international, conduct risk assessments before committing capital.
“A country with widespread insecurity, unprotected production zones, and vulnerable infrastructure receives a risk premium in those assessments: higher financing costs, lower investment volumes, and a systematic preference for short-term, extractive activity over long-term, productive investment.
“Restoring security therefore has a dual economic dividend: it directly reduces losses, and it signals to the market that Nigeria is a viable environment for productive investment.
“NES #32 will explore how security-sector reform, community stabilisation programmes, and governance improvements can compound to shift Nigeria’s risk profile; and with it, the quantity and quality of investment the country can attract.
“NES #32 approaches security not as a purely military or law enforcement question but as a whole-of-society challenge that requires economic, governance, and social responses alongside security-sector ones. Poverty, inequality, unemployment, and exclusion are among the root conditions that fuel insecurity in Nigeria. Addressing them is not soft; it is strategic.
“The summit will examine how economic development programmes, social protection, community investment, and conflict-sensitive governance can complement security operations to achieve durable, rather than temporary, stability.”