Edun Calls for Global South Unity to Check Fragility
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, says there is a need for unity among countries of the Global South to check the rising fragility in global growth.
Edun said this at the Intergovernmental Group of 24 (G-24) Technical Group Meeting (TGM) 2026 in Abuja on Thursday.
He said that the current global economic environment was marked by profound uncertainties, systemic vulnerabilities and a contest between fragmentation and integration, which also hampered trade and debt sustainability.
The minister said that the recurring theme of fragility, whether in growth, trade flows, debt sustainability or institutional capacity reflected the precarious state of the global economy.
He said that the TGM was not merely a routine technical engagement.
According to him, it is also an opportunity to reshape development trajectories for countries of the Global South at a time when global risks were converging faster than institutions could respond.
He said that findings revealed from the World Economic Forum’s global risk survey revealed that half of the experts surveyed expected global conditions to remain volatile over the next two years.
Edun said that 57 per cent foresaw instability over the next decade, while only one per cent anticipated a calm global environment.
He said that the 2026 Global Risk Report identified economic confrontation in the form of tariffs, sanctions, investment restrictions and strategic decoupling as the most likely trigger of global crises.
“Deepening fragmentation can reduce global output by up to two percentage points and shrink global trade by more than two per cent, with developing and emerging markets bearing the brunt.
“Africa, despite accounting for 17 per cent of the world’s population, contributes only about three per cent of global trade and roughly 2.5 per cent of global output.
”Further fragmentation can only worsen this imbalance,” he said.
Edun said that due to fiscal fiscal paradox confronting Emerging Markets and Developing Economies (EMDEs), over a quarter of them had lost access to international capital markets
According to him, more than half were showing signs of debt distress.
He said that debt service payments in recent years had outweighed foreign direct investment and Official Development Assistance (ODA) inflows to many developing countries, constraining fiscal space for health, education, infrastructure and climate resilience.
Edun said that there was the need to reform global financial structures to close the widening Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) financing gap, now estimated at between four trillion dollars and five trillion dollars annually.
He said that over the past two and a half years, the Nigerian government had implemented politically complex but necessary reforms aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and correcting distortions.
“These measures lay the groundwork for a more competitive, transparent and resilient economy.
“Nigeria now stands at the threshold of consolidation, which demands the same discipline and policy consistency that underpinned the stabilisation phase,” he said.
He said that the early outcomes of the reforms had gained global recognition and improved investor confidence, particularly in the oil sector, where major operators had responded positively to new incentives.
The minister said that the country was deliberately shifting from a debt-driven growth model to an investment-led framework anchored on domestic reforms, private capital mobilisation and diversified financing instruments.
“To achieve its target of seven per cent annual growth, the country requires an investment-to-GDP ratio of about 30 per cent.
“The private sector is expected to play a dominant role through structured public-private partnerships and asset optimisation,” the minister said.
On domestic resource mobilisation, he said that the government was advancing comprehensive revenue reforms focused on efficiency, transparency, automation and technology-driven compliance.
