CARTHENAADVISORY

Knowledge

Featured Insights

Economic intelligence and practical strategies for reading the forces shaping business and governance.

CARTHENAPOSITION · Edition 01

Six tests for 2027

What Nigeria needs from whoever wins the 2027 election, and the six tests every presidential programme will be scored against.

The first edition of The Carthena Position, a flagship published twice a year and separate from these insights.

Read Edition 01 →

The Carthena Read, Issue 9: Nigeria's power sector earns in naira and pays in dollars. 85 naira collected per kilowatt-hour received against 95 naira to generate it; 4 per cent of the 2025 subsidy paid; 2,034 megawatts on the grid on 5 October.

Natural Resources & Infrastructure · 6 November 2026

Nigeria's power sector earns in naira and pays in dollars

The Carthena Read, Issue 8. Nigerian headline inflation at 0.06 per cent month on month in September, core inflation at plus 1.11 per cent, and a 350 basis point policy rate cut on 22 September.

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 23 October 2026

September was a harvest, not a disinflation

The Carthena Read Issue 7. Nigeria is renting its stability. External reserves at an eighteen-year high of $55.25bn, interest consuming 53.7% of federal revenue, and $135m of new direct investment in the first quarter.

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 2 October 2026

Nigeria is renting its stability

The Carthena Read Issue 6, September 2026. Nigeria knows what it needs to build. It cannot find the money to build it. $120bn needed every year, $1bn into power out of $12bn needed, 2% pension funds in infrastructure against a 15% regulatory ceiling.

Global Economic Intelligence · 17 September 2026

Nigeria knows what it needs to build. It cannot find the money to build it.

The Carthena Read Issue 5, September 2026: Nigeria bought stability, it has not yet bought progress. Q2 2026 GDP growth 4.43%, 133 million still in poverty, $150bn a year needed against a ~$45bn budget.

Global Economic Intelligence · 4 September 2026

Nigeria bought stability. It has not yet bought progress.

The Carthena Read Issue 4, August 2026: Ghana is doing the work. Inflation 3.2%, a 28-year low from 54% in 2022; reserves US$12.3bn; credit rating B and rising, from default.

Global Economic Intelligence · 14 August 2026

Ghana is doing the work

The Carthena Read Issue 3 cover: Nigeria mistakes motion for progress. Three stats: $11.5B announced, $4B arrived, 47 memoranda signed at one summit in two days.

Governance & Public Sector · 25 July 2026

Nigeria's investment gap is a knowledge problem, not an execution problem

The Carthena Read Issue 2 cover: Nigeria has a productivity problem 30 years in the making. Three stats: $4B in 2025 FDI, $2B was one oil deal, 5 of 5 exits cited FX repatriation.

Global Economic Intelligence · 10 July 2026

Nigeria has a productivity problem 30 years in the making

Choropleth map of African foreign direct investment inflows in 2024, with Egypt dominating at $46.6 billion and Nigeria at $1.08 billion.

Global Economic Intelligence · 26 June 2026

Africa's 2024 FDI: the Egypt effect and Nigeria's slide

Carthena Advisory cover: Nigeria does not have a planning problem, it has a strategy problem.

Strategy & Planning · 6 June 2026

Nigeria does not have a planning problem. It has a strategy problem.

Moniepoint Has a Hiring Problem. Nigeria Has a Pipeline Problem. They Are Not the Same Thing. - Carthena Advisory

Human Capital & Organisation · 15 May 2026

Moniepoint Has a Hiring Problem. Nigeria Has a Pipeline Problem. They Are Not the Same Thing.

China Opens the Door. Nigeria Did Not Walk Through. - Carthena Advisory

Global Economic Intelligence · 9 May 2026

China Opens the Door. Nigeria Did Not Walk Through.

Carthena Insights: The architecture of disruption. China-Africa trade of $348bn in 2025, up 17.7%; $5.31bn lost in Nigeria's crude export earnings; a 10% US tariff on $1.2tn of annual imports.

Global Economic Intelligence · 21 March 2026

The Architecture of Disruption: How the New Global Economic War Is Reshaping Africa's Future

Carthena Insights: Nigeria's infrastructure moment, from deficit to defining opportunity. $2.3tn needed by 2043; $2.7bn allocated in the 2025 Federal Budget; $29bn spent by businesses on generators every year.

Natural Resources & Infrastructure · 19 March 2026

Nigeria's Infrastructure Moment: From Deficit to Defining Opportunity

Carthena Insights: Nigeria's 2026 Economic Outlook and What It Means for Business. The macroeconomic forces shaping Nigeria in 2026 are neither uniformly threatening nor uniformly encouraging - they are nuanced, and the businesses that navigate them well will be those that read them accurately rather than reactively.

Economic Intelligence & Research · 15 January 2026

Nigeria's 2026 Economic Outlook and What It Means for Business

Carthena Insights: Managing margin erosion in Nigerian FMCG. The margin hit runs 30-50% larger than the cost line items add up to; 20-30% of the product range destroys value when fully costed.

Operations & Execution · 20 November 2025

Managing Margin Erosion in Nigerian FMCG

Carthena Insights: Capital Raising in African Aviation: Lessons from the Field. Aviation is one of Africa's most capital-intensive and most misunderstood sectors.

Economic Intelligence & Research · 10 September 2025

Capital Raising in African Aviation: Lessons from the Field

Carthena Insights: Why Nigerian Boards Need Commercial Resilience Diagnostics. Most Nigerian boards can tell you their revenue. Few can tell you how much of it will survive the next market disruption.

Governance & Public Sector · 5 July 2025

Why Nigerian Boards Need Commercial Resilience Diagnostics

Carthena Insights: The case for process optimisation in West African manufacturing. 20-35% of production cost lost to waste, rework and downtime; factories running at 55-70% of capacity; 20-30% cost reduction when the interventions combine.

Operations & Execution · 18 May 2025

The Case for Process Optimisation in West African Manufacturing

Carthena Insights: Understand the Power of WHY: Unlock the Path to Business Success. Simon Sinek's Golden Circle is one of the most cited frameworks in business - and one of the least rigorously applied.

Strategy & Planning · 1 August 2023

Understand the Power of WHY: Unlock the Path to Business Success

Carthena Insights: Why Accountability in Nigeria’s Governance Matters Now More Than Ever. Accountability is not a governance aspiration in Nigeria - it is the defining structural deficit.

Governance & Public Sector · 21 July 2023

Why Accountability in Nigeria’s Governance Matters Now More Than Ever

Carthena Insights: The urgent case for fiscal policy reforms in Nigeria's economic agenda. External debt $41.7bn, inflation 22.41%, infrastructure stock 25% of GDP against an 80% target.

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 10 July 2023

The Urgent Case for Fiscal Policy Reforms in Nigeria’s Economic Agenda

Carthena Insights: How to Craft Public Policies That Deliver Real Impact in Governance. The gap between policy design and policy impact in Nigeria is not a technical failure - it is a process failure.

Governance & Public Sector · 8 July 2023

How to Craft Public Policies That Deliver Real Impact in Governance

Carthena Insights: Top Strategies to Accelerate MSME Growth in Nigeria. MSMEs account for the majority of Nigerian employment and a significant share of GDP - yet they operate in an environment that is structurally hostile to their growth.

Business Growth & MSME · 1 July 2023

Top Strategies to Accelerate MSME Growth in Nigeria

Carthena Insights: Unlocking Leadership Potential: The Strategic Value of Middle Managers. Middle managers are the most underleveraged asset in most Nigerian organisations.

Human Capital & Organisation · 29 June 2023

Unlocking Leadership Potential: The Strategic Value of Middle Managers

Carthena Insights: Embracing the Future: Unleash the Power of Emerging Opportunities. Every significant market shift creates winners and losers simultaneously.

Strategy & Planning · 25 June 2023

Embracing the Future: Unleash the Power of Emerging Opportunities

Carthena Insights: Unleashing Business Growth: Strategies to Assess and Address Weaknesses. Every organisation has weaknesses.

Business Growth & MSME · 3 June 2023

Unleashing Business Growth: Strategies to Assess and Address Weaknesses

Carthena Insights: Leverage Your Organization’s Strengths for a Competitive Advantage. Competitive advantage is rarely created from scratch - it is more often built by identifying what an organisation already does better than anyone else and engineering the conditions for that capability to compound.

Strategy & Planning · 2 June 2023

Leverage Your Organization’s Strengths for a Competitive Advantage

Carthena Insights: How Fuel Prices Are Crushing Consumer Budgets in Nigeria. The full economic cost of Nigeria's fuel price dynamics extends well beyond the pump.

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 31 May 2023

How Fuel Prices Are Crushing Consumer Budgets in Nigeria

Carthena Insights: Unlocking Nigeria's maritime potential. ₦14tn possible annual revenue to the Federal Government; $50bn of investment needed in sea ports and inland waterways; $384m invested in the last port expansion.

Economic Intelligence & Research · 31 May 2023

Unlocking Nigeria’s Maritime Potential: A Hidden Engine for Economic Growth

Carthena Insights: Proven Operating Strategies to Strengthen Nigeria’s Retail Sector. Nigeria's retail sector rewards operational discipline more than almost any other market on the continent.

Operations & Execution · 29 May 2023

Proven Operating Strategies to Strengthen Nigeria’s Retail Sector

Carthena Insights: How to Build a Winning Mindset for High-Impact Strategy Sessions. The quality of a strategy session is determined before anyone enters the room.

Strategy & Planning · 26 May 2023

How to Build a Winning Mindset for High-Impact Strategy Sessions

Carthena Insights: How to Use SWOT Analysis for Smarter Strategic Decisions. SWOT analysis remains one of the most widely used and most poorly executed strategic tools in business.

Strategy & Planning · 25 May 2023

How to Use SWOT Analysis for Smarter Strategic Decisions

Carthena Insights: How to Run High-Impact Strategy Sessions Using a Powerful SWOT Framework. A SWOT analysis is only as valuable as the quality of the conversation it generates.

Strategy & Planning · 24 May 2023

How to Run High-Impact Strategy Sessions Using a Powerful SWOT Framework

Carthena Insights: The Ultimate Guide to Writing an Effective Training Report. A training report is not a compliance document - it is a strategic communication.

Human Capital & Organisation · 24 May 2023

The Ultimate Guide to Writing an Effective Training Report

Carthena Insights: 3 Proven Strategies to Align Your Business with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals are not a CSR framework - they are a map of where global capital, regulation, and consumer preference are heading.

Sustainability & ESG · 21 May 2023

3 Proven Strategies to Align Your Business with the UN Sustainable Development Goals

Carthena Insights: 10 Proven Strategies to Boost Staff Retention in Nigerian Workplaces. Staff turnover in Nigeria is consistently undercosted.

Human Capital & Organisation · 18 May 2023

10 Proven Strategies to Boost Staff Retention in Nigerian Workplaces

Carthena Insights: Diaspora remittances, a vital engine for Nigeria's growth. $25.08bn remitted in 2019; about 6% of GDP in 2018; an estimated 17 million Nigerians abroad.

Economic Intelligence & Research · 17 May 2023

Diaspora Remittances: A Vital Engine for Nigeria’s Economic Growth

institutional strengthening

Governance & Public Sector · 12 May 2023

Institutional Strengthening as the Key to Reviving Nigeria’s Economy

Carthena Insights: Fuel subsidy removal in Nigeria, what every citizen should know. ₦1.3tn spent on fuel subsidy in 2020; ₦3tn in 2022, more than double.

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 8 May 2023

Fuel Subsidy Removal in Nigeria: What Every Citizen Should Know

Carthena Insights: Impact of claims on the Insurance Industry - post EndSARS. The EndSARS protests surfaced a structural vulnerability in Nigeria's insurance sector that had been building for years.

Economic Intelligence & Research · 29 December 2020

Impact of claims on the Insurance Industry - post EndSARS

Carthena Insights: Discussing the 2020 Finance Bill at TVC News. Nigeria's Finance Bill 2020 contained provisions with far-reaching implications for how businesses are taxed, how capital is allocated, and how the government funds its priorities.

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 5 December 2020

Discussing the 2020 Finance Bill at TVC News

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 12 November 2020

What Nigeria’s Rising Debt Profile Means for Growth and Stability

Carthena Insights: Achieving Business Sustainability & Growth - Current/Post Covid-19 Thoughts. The pandemic did not create Nigeria's business vulnerabilities - it exposed them.

Business Growth & MSME · 25 April 2020

Achieving Business Sustainability & Growth - Current/Post Covid-19 Thoughts

Carthena Insights: 7 Business Writing Principles Every Professional Should Know. The ability to write with clarity and authority is one of the most commercially valuable skills a professional can develop - and one of the most consistently neglected.

Human Capital & Organisation · 3 March 2020

7 Business Writing Principles Every Professional Should Know

Carthena Insights: Why Nigeria needs a strong national identity to achieve economic progress. 65% below the poverty line, 63% aged 0 to 24, 250+ ethnic groups.

Fiscal & Economic Policy · 23 January 2020

Why Nigeria Needs a Strong National Identity to Achieve Economic Progress

Carthena Insights: How Strong Institutions Can Drive Nigeria’s Economic Recovery. Economic recovery in Nigeria will not be delivered by any single policy intervention or administration.

Governance & Public Sector · 8 January 2020

How Strong Institutions Can Drive Nigeria’s Economic Recovery