Foreign Affairs Minister Pushes for Inclusive Economic Diplomacy, Says “Growth Without Equity is Unsustainable”

By Ameh Gabriel Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, has called for a paradigm shift in Africa’s development model, urging governments, the private sector, and civil society to embrace inclusive economic diplomacy as a tool for sustainable growth. Speaking at the Policy Innovation Centre’s High-Level Plenary of the 2025 Gender Summit themed “From Aid to Investment: Leveraging Economic Diplomacy for Africa’s Inclusive Development”, Tuggar stressed that Africa’s future lies not just in growth but in equitable participation of women, youth, and marginalized groups. “Africa stands at the cusp of transformation,” he said, citing the continent’s combined nominal GDP of $2.8 trillion and projected population of 2.5 billion by 2050. “But growth without inclusivity is fragile, and prosperity without equity is unsustainable.” The minister highlighted stark gender disparities holding back Africa’s development:

• Women dominate 70% of the informal economy yet remain excluded from formal trade.
• Girls’ school completion rates lag behind boys’, with 7.6 million Nigerian girls still out of school.
• Women occupy only 27.3% of parliamentary seats in Africa, while in Nigeria, the figure is as low as 4.2%.

Quoting a Council on Foreign Relations study, Tuggar noted that Nigeria’s GDP could increase by 23%  an additional $229 billion if women participated in the economy at the same level as men. To bridge these gaps, he said Nigeria has recalibrated its foreign policy under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s 4-D Diplomacy Agenda (Development, Demography, Diaspora, and Democracy), which prioritizes women and youth inclusion in global engagement. He cited initiatives such as the Regional Partnership for Democracy (RPD), the West Africa Economic Summit, and domestic policies like the National Gender Policy (2021–2026) and Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Action Plan (2023–2028), all of which aim to create opportunities for underrepresented groups.