Renowned turnaround expert and former Director-General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside, has said Nigeria’s economic transformation will depend largely on its ability to redesign and strengthen institutional systems rather than rely solely on its natural resources.
Peterside made the assertion while delivering the keynote address at the First International Conference of the Department of Business Administration at the Ignatius Ajuru University of Education in Port Harcourt.
Speaking on the theme, “Business Re-engineering as a Catalyst for Economic Development,” Peterside said institutions should not be defined by their physical structures or global rankings, but by the quality of questions they ask and the values they instil in their graduates.
He challenged participants to move beyond the search for easy answers and instead develop the courage to ask the right questions about the systems that drive organisations and economies.
According to him, economic progress is determined not merely by what a country possesses but by how effectively it organises production, makes decisions, delivers value, and scales ideas into jobs.
He argued that Nigeria’s persistent economic underperformance is less about a lack of resources and more about weak systems and inefficient processes.
Peterside described business re-engineering as more than incremental reform, explaining that it involves the radical redesign of organisational processes that are technology-enabled, outcome-driven and continuously evolving.
By interrogating why systems are slow, expensive, unpredictable or susceptible to manipulation, organisations, he said, can rebuild processes that are suited to current realities rather than outdated constraints.
The author of three bestselling books also noted that productivity growth is not achieved through motivation alone but through well-designed systems.
“When processes are simplified, responsibilities clarified, delays reduced and standards enforced, productivity improves naturally,” he said.
Tracing the evolution of business process re-engineering, Peterside noted that from early industrial workflows and quality control movements to the modern era of digital transformation, technology has increasingly become a powerful enabler through automation, data platforms and artificial intelligence.
However, he cautioned that technology alone cannot repair dysfunctional systems.
“Technology cannot fix a broken process unless the process itself is first redesigned,” he said.
Linking re-engineering to national development, Peterside identified low productivity as Nigeria’s core structural constraint.
Improved processes, he noted, would raise productivity, boost competitiveness, lower costs, enhance quality and enable firms to scale.
Such improvements, he added, would ultimately expand employment opportunities, increase wages and strengthen export capacity.
Turning specifically to Nigeria’s business environment, Peterside said the high cost of doing business, inefficient logistics, slow regulatory approvals and limited export diversification were the result of design failures rather than unavoidable circumstances.
He therefore urged policymakers to adopt business re-engineering as a national productivity strategy supported by deliberate policies, institutional restructuring and strong collaboration between the public and private sectors.
Peterside also called on academia, government and industry leaders to embrace re-engineering as a continuous mindset rather than a one-off reform initiative.
According to him, Nigeria can build resilient systems that outlast individuals and deliver sustainable economic growth if institutions commit to measurement, discipline and performance.
“By committing to measurement, discipline and institutional performance, Nigeria can build systems that outlast personalities and deliver sustainable growth, better jobs, stronger firms and a more inclusive economic future,” he said.
