The Manufacturing Association of Nigeria and other stakeholders have called for a new industrial policy, as manufactured goods constituted only 1.4 per cent of the country’s total exports in the first quarter of 2024.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria’s CEO Confidence Index report claimed that the effort of “government aimed at revitalising the manufacturing sector… have not resulted in a win-win situation”.
The MAN sentiment was shared by a Professor of Economics at Babcock University, Olusegun Ajibola, who told The PUNCH that Nigeria needed a new industrial policy to identify.
He explained that previous government policies aimed at boosting the manufacturing sector failed because of overreliance on imported goods and the high costs of production in the country.
Ajibola said, “There were policies from past governments to empower Nigeria’s manufacturing, but they have not yielded the desired outcomes. It is the efficacy that is a problem. There is a need for a total overhaul if the manufacturing sector is to come alive.”
Ajibola, a former president of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, said the government, which focused on petrodollars, had not paid attention to the real sector.
According to the recently released foreign trade in goods statistics by the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, the country exported N268bn worth of manufactured goods in the first quarter of 2024, trailing behind crude oil exports (N15.4tn), other oil product exports (N1.9tn) and agricultural goods (N1tn).
The total export rose by 51 per cent to N19.17tn from N12.69tn in Q4 2023 and was up by 195.47 per cent when compared with N6.49tn recorded in the first quarter of 2023. According to the NBS report, the country achieved a trade balance of N6.52tn in the first quarter of 2024, as the total merchandise trade stood at N31.8tn, representing an increase of 46.27 per cent compared to Q4 2023 and 145.58 per cent compared to Q1 2023.
During the period under review, imports increased by 39.65 per cent to N12.64tn from N9.05tn in Q4 of last year.
Meanwhile, the Vice President of Highcap Securities Limited, David Adonri, recommended a return to the 4th National Development Plan initiated by former Nigerian Head of State, Yakubu Gowon as the way to develop the domestic manufacturing industry.
He asserted, “Nigeria lacks the heavy industrial base to sustain the productive momentum of light industries and this makes locally manufactured goods uncompetitive.”
The Highcap Securities Vice-president lamented how subsequent administrations truncated the Gowon-initiated plan.
He said the 4th National Development Plan envisioned that the heavy industrial base, otherwise called engineering infrastructure, must be built to utilise domestic resources to achieve self-sufficiency and export capabilities.
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu pledged to support manufacturers in Nigeria when he recently inaugurated a tomato-processing plant in Gafara, Kebbi State, reaffirming his campaign promise to “export more and import less, strengthening both the Naira and our way of life”.
The Punch earlier reported that the country’s trade balance of manufactured goods hit a deficit of N9.4tn in the first nine months of 2023.
