Kwara: Towards a $75bn economy in the next decade
By Kolawole Ibrahim
This is the introductory part of an economic development plan developed to guide the incoming administration of Kwara State towards increased revenue generation, shared prosperity, and sustainable growth.
It is unfortunate that although economic poverty may have dealt a devastating blow on human lives yet the most damaging is the problem of the poverty of the mind. This poverty of the mind has shaped socio-political discussions, while the common denominators across social strata remain widespread economic impoverishment, state-captured politics of the elites across party lines, and misaligned resource utilization.
The real issues in Kwara today are the trans-generational shift in power, the question of economic development, building consensus on social inclusion, consolidating institutional governance, redesigning rural and urban security architecture, redistribution of shared resources, ensuring regional balance in infrastructure investments, and promoting SMEs backed by a strong macro-industrial base.
The 2027 election cycle presents Kwara State with an opportunity to break from the entrenched interests of the last five decades. With candidates from major parties emerging, Kwarans have a golden opportunity to negotiate for the future they desire and shape the developmental direction for the next occupant of the Ahmadu Bello House.
The agenda-setting process for the next 20 years begins now.
While we must consciously interrogate the last 27 years with the mindset of understanding what went wrong, what worked, and the lessons learned, we must also begin the process of designing a strategic developmental framework for the socio-political, economic, and structural growth of Kwara State.
The thinking, conversations, narratives, and solutions going forward should be people-centered, focusing on human capital development, qualitative and quantitative resource utilization, reducing ungoverned territories through economic inclusion, rural infrastructure investment, continuous urban improvement, and attracting meaningful external investment capital.
The quality of debates and institutional solutions must shift beyond the usual discussions of health, education, and water provision toward competitive propositions that will position the State to earn a place among 21st-century global resource allocation indices. As a people, we need to articulate a social safety net as a prerequisite for a minimum statewide living standard.
We must cross-reference resource allocations and utilization to further achieve multiplier effects in the pursuit of a greater Kwara.
The institutional framework for implementing government policies and action plans should be fine-tuned, reoriented, and made compliance-driven to achieve the objectives of delivering good governance and systemic value creation.
This cycle presents an opportunity to open dialogue on practical mechanisms for economic advancement, youth and women’s participation in value creation, and the deepening of the role of SMEs and homegrown entrepreneurs in transitioning from primary material extraction to finished-goods production hubs.
It is expedient to build an ecosystem for qualitative human capital development and skill sets that will prepare our youth and workforce to become global citizens. The conversation must shift from piecemeal interventions to strategic deliverables capable of generating long-term returns for the State and improving the quality of the living environment.
Statewide integration and interconnectivity should be prioritized through investments in road and rail infrastructure to provide an enabling environment for businesses.
Collectively, stakeholder engagement should be convened to rethink a new security architecture revolving around a concrete social contract, political and economic inclusion, and rural upliftment.
The real power shift lies in the ability of the coming administration to reset the developmental trajectory, build comprehensive frameworks for institutional consolidation, embrace the knowledge and digital economy, unlock rural potential, and leverage a human-centered technological security network for the protection of Kwarans and their investments.
Ultimately, the development agenda for any incoming administration in Kwara State should be focused on building a 75 billion dollars economy within the next ten years.
In the coming publications we will elaborate further on this subject matter.
IBRAHIM is a Policy Development Expert, Trade Facilitator, Agribusiness Consultant, Economic and Food Diplomacy Advocate. He is the Project Lead at Exectus Limited.
