Foremost banker and founder of the Aigboje Aig‑Imoukhuede Foundation, Mr Aigboje Aig‑Imoukhuede, has called for a smarter, transparent and results-driven collaboration between government and the private sector, declaring that citizens must become the true measure of governance success rather than policy declarations and bureaucratic activity.
Speaking at the International Civil Service Conference 2026 in Abuja, Aig-Imoukhuede delivered a thought-provoking paper titled “Public-Private Collaboration for Service Delivery and Innovation,” where he challenged governments across Africa to move beyond rhetoric and focus on reforms that citizens can genuinely feel in their daily lives.
Addressing participants from within and outside Nigeria under the conference theme, “Reforms, Resilience and Results,” he argued that governance should no longer be judged by official pronouncements, endless meetings or the volume of policy documents produced.
“The true measure of government is not policy announcements,” he said. “It is simply about whether citizens can actually feel the results of the work that government is doing in their lives.”
According to him, the real evidence of governance lies in practical outcomes that directly touch ordinary people — whether passports are issued promptly, roads completed on schedule, hospitals functional, pensions paid seamlessly and businesses registered without needless bottlenecks.
He stressed that farmers must be able to transport goods to markets efficiently instead of watching their harvests waste away because of poor systems and infrastructure.
Aig-Imoukhuede said the rising public expectations, fuelled by rapid technological advancement across the world, now demand a different style of governance anchored on innovation, efficiency and partnerships.
He warned that worsening fiscal pressures facing many African countries have made effective collaboration between the public and private sectors no longer optional but inevitable.
“The question is no longer whether government should collaborate with the private sector,” he said. “The real question is how government can collaborate intelligently, transparently and effectively while preserving public trust and public property.”
The entrepreneur described the civil service as the “engine room” of national development, insisting that no reform agenda can succeed without an effective and responsive bureaucracy.
“The civil service remains the engine room of the Nigerian state. Politicians may define priorities, but the civil service converts national ambition into administrative reality,” he said.
Aig-Imoukhuede warned that the pace of Nigeria’s development — and by extension Africa’s — would ultimately depend on the effectiveness of the civil service.
“If the civil service is effective, Nigeria moves and Africa moves. If the civil service is slow, fragmented and overwhelmed, Nigeria slows down and Africa drops down,” he said.
He identified the strengths both sectors bring into development partnerships, explaining that while government offers legitimacy, continuity, scale and responsibility for public interest, the private sector contributes capital, innovation, technology, project execution speed and performance measurement.
According to him, the world’s most successful nations are those where both sectors clearly understand their responsibilities yet work together harmoniously for the benefit of citizens.
Aig-Imoukhuede argued that collaboration should not be restricted to roads, airports and physical infrastructure alone.
He said the most transformative partnerships are those focused on building functional systems such as digital identity platforms, procurement systems, tax administration frameworks, healthcare logistics, payment systems and citizen service portals.
“Public-private collaboration is not only about roads and airports,” he stressed. “Probably the more important aspect is about building systems that work.”
He also warned against mistaking government activity for actual reform, insisting that meetings, committees and memoranda do not automatically translate into progress.
“The number of meetings held is not reform. The number of committees established is not reform. The number of memoranda signed is not reform,” he said.
Ge maintained that reforms should only be measured by visible improvements in citizens’ experiences, shorter waiting times, reduced corruption leakages, increased transparency and better public service delivery.
Aig-Imoukhuede also advocated strong knowledge and skills transfer between both sectors, saying partnerships should leave lasting institutional capacity within government.
He recalled instances where civil servants who initially struggled with technology eventually developed the competence to design and manage digital systems effectively.
“A good partnership takes place when one partner can literally see the other transforming as a result of that partnership,” he said.
He said values such as patriotism, loyalty to national interest and selflessness should equally flow from the public sector into private institutions.
He also challenged private businesses to rethink their relationship with government, urging them to stop seeing public institutions merely as sources of contracts and profit opportunities.
He said companies should recognise government as the custodian of public trust and position themselves as partners in solving national problems sustainably and at scale.
“The question from the private sector must not be how much can we expect from government,” he said. “The real question must be how can we help solve public problems sustainably and at scale.”
He described effective collaboration between the public and private sectors as indispensable to Nigeria’s emergence as a leading force for development on the African continent.
“If we do that,” he said, “Nigeria and Africa can truly take their pride of place as flag bearers of progress and development in the community of nations.”
