By Bimbola Oyesola
Sustainable policies that will support industrial growth and decent work in the country are pivotal to Nigeria’s economic advancement in Africa and globally, says Issa Aremu.
This is even as he commended President Bola Tinubu for his commitment to drive investment for economic growth and decent mass employment since he assumed leadership of the country.
Aremu, the director- of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies ( MINILS), Kwara State, speaking during the 2023 Africa Industrialization Day (AID), noted that industry has always played a vital role in development and industry boosts economic activities along value chains, creates jobs from raw materials processing to finished goods and services for genuine constructive advocacy for national industrial development.
The United Nations (UN) General Assembly, in 1989, within the framework of the Second Industrial Development Decade for Africa (1991-2000) proclaimed November 20 annually Africa Industrialization Day (AID) via resolution 44/237.
The day was intended to mobilize the commitment of the local and international community to the diversification and industrialization of African economies. The theme for this year’s AID was “Accelerating Africa’s industrialization through the empowerment of African women in processing for an integrated market.”
The DG observed that Industrialization Day assumes special importance for the institute mandated to promote labour education, because “only industry guarantees formal, secured, productive and paying jobs as distinct from precarious informal sector jobs,” in line with SDG 9 dealing with industry and innovation.
He called on employers of labour, workers and trade unions, as well as government officials, to be informed through education about sustainable industrial policies for genuine constructive advocacy for national industrial development.
Aremu hailed the Dangote Group, which, despite the perceived difficulty of doing business in Nigeria, and across Africa, has moved from wholesale trading to become a multi-sectoral manufacturing giant, diversified and fully integrated conglomerate with an annual group turnover in excess of $4 billion.
He said, “The much-awaited inaugurated world’s largest single Dangote Refinery Complex that has the capacity to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, shows that Nigeria, like China, can truly take a leap from misery of import dependence to joy of local production, exportation and mass job creation.”