WHERE MR IYINOLA ABOYEJI (CO-FOUNDER,FLUTTERWAVE) GOT IT WRONG – WITH RESPECT, BEING A GREAT TECHIE GUY DOES NOT MAKE NOT MAKE YOU A GREAT ECONOMIST! (By Ope Banwo, Founder, Naija Lives Matter/ Mayor of Fadeyi)

Though I GREATLY respect the young man—he has achieved what many can only dream of in TECH, by getting investors to bet billions of dollars on his companies (he didn’t make that money from his economic genius), but quite frankly he does not make sense in many parts of his economic analysis on nigeria as poted by Sam Omatseye on his Handle today .

Th eFlutterwave and Andela co-founder may be a brilliant techie, but that doesn’t automatically qualify him to speak with authority on complex macroeconomic issues. Getting investors to invest billions of dollars in your operation is not prooof you are an economic genius . Just that you created a great app that people want to bet on .

Afterall Andela received billions in investors funds since 2014 but yet to show any sustain profits 11 years after . That’s fact and not a dig. I do like the guy but he does not have the credits to claim any serious understanding of macro or micro economics (and neither do I as a matter of fact 🤣. So take my own contributions too as is. Not expert opinion 🤷🏿‍♂️)

In my own non-expert opinion, from what he just said, it appears to me the flutterwave legend lacks a foundational understanding of both macro and microeconomics.

Let me quickly dismantle a few of his misleading claims since @samomatseye did not allow commments on his twitter page where Mr Flutterwave spoke:

1. Contrary to hai claim, The U.S. Decoupling from the Gold Standard Did NOT Spark Its Explosive Growth.

Claiming that the U.S. grew rapidly after leaving the gold standard is a shallow analysis. The truth is, China, which still manages its currency aggressively and didn’t follow that model, has recorded faster GDP growth than the U.S. in the same period. In 1971, China was way behind the U.S., yet it has since grown at record pace—not because it abandoned gold—but because it focused on industrialization, productivity, education, infrastructure, and export-driven policies. The Nigerian economy lacks all of these pillars.

2. Cheap Labor and a Weak Currency Mean Nothing Without Production.

What good is a cheap naira or low wages if you don’t have the infrastructure to produce at scale? In Nigeria, every entrepreneur is forced to act like the government—generating their own electricity, building their own roads, sourcing foreign exchange at outrageous black-market rates, and financing business at 25%–35% interest. Without power, roads, water, and access to affordable capital, you can’t industrialize—no matter how cheap your labor is.

3. Celebrating a $40 Monthly Minimum Wage in a Resource-Rich Country Is Intellectual Laziness.

How can anyone be proud of a $40 monthly minimum wage in a nation blessed with oil, gas, solid minerals, arable land, and a 200 million-strong population? That’s not an indicator of policy success; it’s a damning indictment of decades of elite failure. You don’t see that kind of poverty wage in countries with half our resources.

4. There Is No Real Production Base—Just Importation and Consumption.

The Nigerian economy is structurally dependent on imports for everything—from toothpicks to technology. Even with all the so-called ‘policies’ in place, there is no real value chain development in agriculture, manufacturing, or technology hardware. As long as Nigeria continues to import more than it exports, no amount of naira devaluation or FX reform will create sustainable growth.

5. The Economy Is Built on Debt and Looting, Not Investment.

Our economic lifeline is borrowing to pay salaries and share money among politicians. The capital expenditure in many budgets is a joke, and a large chunk of borrowed funds gets siphoned off through inflated contracts and corruption. There’s little productivity from all the loans we’ve collected. That’s not economic reform—that’s organized cannibalism.

6. Inflation Is Devouring Purchasing Power at an Alarming Rate.

Even if you say “GDP is growing,” real purchasing power has collapsed. The cost of food, rent, fuel, and transportation has skyrocketed. The average Nigerian is worse off today than they were five years ago. If the people feel poorer, then whatever “growth” you’re talking about is either on paper or in the accounts of multinational corporations and politicians.

7. Tinubu’s Policies May Be Bold, But Execution Has Been Disastrous.

Removing fuel subsidy and floating the naira were necessary—but doing both at the same time without cushioning measures or economic shock absorbers has created widespread hardship. Bold policies without smart execution only produce chaos, not progress. The IMF or World Bank may clap, but the market women and SMEs are bleeding.

In summary, policy without production, reforms without real infrastructure, and optimism without economic literacy is a dangerous mix. Nigeria has potential, yes—but let’s not mistake media optics for economic transformation. Optimism must be grounded in reality and data, not vibes and hashtags.

FYI : To be clear, lets i am misujderstood by those who like to fight instead of debating. This is not me dragging the Mr Iyinoluwa Aboyeji but simply contributing to the issues he raised in his video . I otherwise have great respect and admiration for him anwuat he has been able to achieve in the tech space. It’s not easy to get billions of dollars invested in your startup. So I give the man his flowers for that

Ope Banwo
Founder, Naija Lives Matter
Mayor of Fadeyi