2019 Nigeria CEO Outlook

Nigerian CEOs are optimistic about economic growth, but reality beckons about their companies’ prospects. Seventy-six percent of CEOs are confident about the growth prospects of the economy over the next three years. Sixty-four percent of them expect conservative top line growth of less than 2 percent over the same period. Cyber security risk is the number one threat to growth identified by CEOs, up from second in 2018; emerging/disruptive technology and regulatory risks are the other top concerns.

'Collaborations and partnerships' is the preferred option for Nigerian CEOs to pivot quickly in an age of disruption. Eighty-six percent of Nigerian CEOs say that acting with agility is the new currency of business. Fifty-five percent of CEOs favour strategic alliances and joint ventures as their top strategies to drive growth.

Nigerian CEOs need to drive an organisationwide digital reinvention to master resilience. Seventy-four percent of CEOs intend to focus on modernising their workforce and improving customer engagement to future-proof their businesses. Eighty-six percent of CEOs expect to see significant return on investment from their digital transformation programmes over the next three years. Eighty percent of Nigerian CEOs plan to upskill at least 30 percent of their current workforce.

Resilient CEOs need to be agile, adaptive and willing to challenge the status quo. Seventy-five percent of Nigerian CEOs say that, at 5 years, the average tenure of a CEO means there is more urgency to act with agility. Seventy-four percent of Nigerian CEOs say that they are actively transforming their leadership team to build resilience. CEOs must maintain close customer connections and balance data-driven insights with intuition (and experience) to drive radical change.

Leading CEOs from large and complex organisations in Nigeria — from Dangote's Olakunle Alake to Access Bank's Herbert Wigwe — give their candid views on how to build resilient organisations that have what it takes to win and grow in an uncertain and disrupted future.