Adopt asset-based framework for economic growth, treasurers advise FG

Treasurers have identified adopting an assets-based framework as a viable alternative for economic growth to the output-based approach taken by multiple government administrations.

The Association of Corporate Treasurers of Nigeria noted this during its 2025 Economic Outlook event on Friday in Lagos, themed ‘Navigating Nigeria’s Economic Landscape in 2025: Opportunities and Challenges for Corporate Treasurers’.

The event featured a keynote from the Chief Executive Officer of Economic Associates, Dr Ayo Teriba, who urged the Federal Government to implement policies consistent with an asset-based framework as opposed to output-centric policies, which he defined as characteristic of countries that experience short-term bursts but lack growth in the long-term.

Teriba noted the government could not keep working with policy lines that have not worked and expect a different result, including borrowing for direct infrastructure investment instead of borrowing against national assets.

“When we talk about the outlook, we first look back and say that the evolution of the country’s economy has been a nightmare,” he stated. “We cannot do the same thing over and over and expect different results.

“Just as companies thrive by assetising, states can only grow by assetising too. Borrow against assets and issue equity against assets.”

Teriba explained the government needs to invest in four categories of assets, including physical, human, intellectual, and digital assets.

Using a country like India, the economist explained that assets are codependent, such as human and intellectual assets.

“You cannot have human assets without an educated population, which is the intellectual assets,” he asserted.

Teriba explained the implications of an assets-based approach on high-growth sectors like agriculture, which means the government needs to focus on stopping post-harvest losses and not keep buying newer tractors to improve yield, which ends up getting damaged by half.

He identified other growth sectors including energy, transportation and services

He encouraged the federal and state governments to attract foreign direct investments for financing assets such as railway tracks to improve the transportation needs of the agriculture and services economy.

He explained further: “Only countries that align with the evolving global reality of growing inward FDI stocks by financialising their assets in the face of sluggish exports will remain liquid enough to sustain exchange rate stability and diversified Gross Domestic Product growth.

“Countries with stagnant inward FDI stocks and slow export flows will require additional funding to stay liquid enough to support diversified GDP growth.”

He described countries who adopt assets-based approaches as financialisers, including The United States from the G7, China, and India from BRICS, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Vietnam from N-11 belong to this group of increasingly liquid countries.

Non-financialisers included Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK from G7, Brazil, Russia, and South Africa from BRICS, and Iran, Nigeria, and Turkey from N-11, who belong to this group of increasingly illiquid countries.

“Each country, its cities, and its companies must urgently take steps to move from the club of increasingly illiquid nations into the league of increasingly liquid,” Teriba admonished.

Meanwhile, ACTN President, Adeyinka Ogunnubi, in his welcome address, emphasised that the 2025 economic outlook event was a call to treasurers and businesses to become innovative.

“It is a clarion call to all of us to embrace innovation, resilience, and strategic foresight as we prepare to face the unique economic realities of the coming year,” Ogunnubi stated. “The global economic environment continues to evolve rapidly, and Nigeria is no exception.

“We are navigating an era defined by inflationary pressures, fluctuating interest rates, dynamic regulatory changes, and geopolitical uncertainties. These factors pose challenges, yes, but they also offer unprecedented opportunities for corporate treasurers to lead with strategic financial stewardship, risk management, and innovation.”

Ogunnubi added that the corporate treasurer’s role goes beyond managing funds to “enabling businesses to thrive amidst uncertainty, optimising liquidity, and creating long-term value.”

Further, a member of the ACTN governing council, Peju Faloye, highlighted treasurers’ need to approach the year with impact-driven strategies for business growth.

Faloye, also the Group Treasury Manager of Oando Plc, remarked that since developments in the economy affect the treasury of businesses, “Corporate treasurers must focus on providing services and driving liquidity, ensuring that we provide liquidity for our businesses.”

She added that illiquid businesses are unable to drive or deliver assets or growth, noting “As treasurers, we are at the core of ensuring that our businesses are always liquid enough to continue to deliver growth strategies for our companies.

“That is the core for treasurers today. The takeaway is that we must focus less on reviewing balance sheets as we used to historically 10 years ago.”

Faloye affirmed that treasurers in 2025 have to look at strategies and different approaches to providing immediate, medium and long-term liquidity solutions for business so that we can actualise this for our businesses and, of course, for the country because we are a sum of the parts.

“If we are not doing well as treasurers then the output will be on the economy,” the Oando group treasury manager added.