The numbers coming out of Nigeria's corporate sector right now are hard to ignore. Three years into President Bola Tinubu's economic reforms, operating cash flows have surged across multiple sectors, and the country's biggest companies are the ones collecting.
The adjustments, painful as they were for ordinary Nigerians, created a new playing field for businesses that could absorb the shocks and reposition quickly. Fuel subsidy removal, naira devaluation, and interest rate shifts all fed into an environment where well-capitalized firms found room to grow their margins even as household budgets tightened.
What we are watching is the corporate side of economic adjustment, the part that does not always make the headlines. While the policy conversation has centered on inflation and cost of living, balance sheets across banking, consumer goods, and energy have been quietly telling a different story.
The real question now is whether that cash stays in executive corridors or starts flowing outward in ways that actually build something. Watch this space.
Originally published by BusinessDay.