Lady Ada Chukwudozie is a maverick. She is the Chairman of the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), South-East branch, comprising Enugu, Anambra, and Ebonyi States. Her astuteness landed her to the chairmanship position of the board of Keystone Bank, after her splendid performance as a member of the Federal Government-Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) minimum wage negotiation committee. To the chagrin of every Nigerian, the committee was able to reach a decision acceptable to both sides with regards to the intractable issue of the minimum wage. She rose up to the occasion once more to organise a programme in Enugu State to discuss the above title of this article. Important to note was the attendance of the creme de la creme to the 36th AGM of the MAN. From the Obi of Onitsha, to the Emirs from the North, to the President of the MAN, to the Governors of Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, through their distinguished representatives, to the educated and learned professors and doctors in this key area of knowledge, notable among them, being the two Guest Speakers, Dr. Nnaemeka Onyeka Obiaraeri, and Dr Dakuku Adol Peterside, and the more than 12 panelists and discussants. The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Hon Nkeiruka Onyejiocha was present.
The two-day event started on the 27th of November, 2024, with two different panel of discussants. There seemed to be a consensus that Nigeria is a nation that is blessed with the abundance of everything that it needs to succeed and flourish. As of January 1, 2024, Nigeria proven gas reserve is 209.26trillion cubic feet. Concentrated Solar Thermal potential is 427,000MW. Nigeria has 12,120MW Hydro Power potential. UNIDO Office for Hydro in Africa says that Nigeria has over 250 small hydro sites untaped which can be used for SMEs. Yet present level of power generation and distribution is about 5,000MW, and has been so for decades.
MAN noted at the event that the rate of industrialization of any nation has a direct correlation to the availability and cost of power. Recognizing that electricity is the oxygen for industrialization and economic growth, MAN was unequivocal that Nigeria cannot afford the energy habits of the past. “Energy management must be taken seriously if we want industrial growth.” Leveraging sustainable energy optimization is one of the ways of achieving revitalizing Nigeria’s economy through manufacturing-driven non-oil exports.
In the absence of needed infrastructure for productivity, MAN enumerated the distressed economic outlook of Nigeria to include inflation rate-33.8%, food inflation is today at an all time high of over 40%, national unemployment/underemployment rate as at 2023=40%, naira devaluation: N365 / USD in 2019 to N1,740/USD in 2024 (October), national debt – $83.88bn to $91.3bn in 2024, crude oil continues to account for 90% of our export revenue, and insecurity had remained unchecked and untamed. More than 60% of Nigerians are poor, etc.
Analysing the sectoral contribution to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), most probably to highlight the abysmal contribution of the manufacturing sector to the GDP, Dr Peterside Dakuku, listed them as follows: 2013-Oil & Gas contributed 9% to GDP, 2023-Oil & Gas contributed 7% to GDP; 2013-Services Sector contributed 49% to GDP, 2023-Services Sector contributed 54%; manufacturing Sector contributed 8-10 % ( 2013 to 2023); agriculture contributed 40% to GDP in 2013, and in 2023, agriculture contributed 25% to GDP; export revenue – oil ( 90% ), while non oil sector provided only 10% of export revenue. This obviously portrays Nigeria as a mono product economy that depends only on oil for survival. Not even depending on refined oil for survival, but only on crude oil for survival. Our leaders have not stopped short to think that their dependence on crude oil is a reflection of their crude, unrefined nature in their leadership style. If we had refined leaders, they would have put in more efforts to refine our oil so we would be a net exporter of refined oil products.
We must quip in that the MAN event actually omitted one thing. They talked about revitalising Nigeria’s economy through manufacturing-driven non-oil exports, but they forgot that no manufacturing takes place even in the oil sector. What our crude, unrefined, incompetent, and corrupt leaders do is to simply scoop up the crude oil flowing like river and sell it like that without adding any manufacturing value to it. There are more than twenty different products that can be gotten from refining crude oil, which include, premium motor spirit (pms), diesel, kerosine, jet fuel, etc. If they refine the product in Nigeria, we will have enough for our consumption and have surplus for export. Having enough for our consumption will automatically reduce our imports, thereby conserving our foreign exchange.
Importation of refined petroleum is the greatest destroyer of our foreign exchange and manufacturing refined oil in Nigeria is even more important than manufacturing other products. It’s the most demanded product in Nigeria. The removal of manufacturing refined oil in Nigeria in the theme of the programme was a missed opportunity for the MAN to enlighten Nigerians on the numerous beneficial products that can come from refined oil and the need for the government to do all it can to facilitate the revitalisation of the refineries, build new ones, and encourage the private sector to invest in it. Manufacturing is manufacturing, whether it is in the oil sector or not.
This is even more necessary as Dakuku ably stated the benefits a country can get from the manufacturing sector. In his words, manufacturing has the capacity to create employment opportunities; helps to expand the tax base and thereby increase revenue to national coffers; spur economic diversification; reduce dependency on oil; and has the ability to insulate the economy from global shocks. It stimulates favourable trade balances; infrastructural and human capacity development; skills development; transfer of technology and innovation. He concluded that export driven manufacturing can achieve significantly higher growth rate than import substitution.
Indeed he demonstrated how powerful the manufacturing sector is by citing the popular quote from a Japanese philosopher and industrialist, Akio Morita, who is also an investor/co-founder of the monstrous Japanese Sony brand of electronic products. Morita opined that “an economy can only be as strong as its manufacturing base” in a well researched article published in Harvard Business Review, June, 1992. In line with this assertion, Nigeria economy is very weak as the manufacturing sector contributes only about 10% to the GDP.
The MAN event recognised, through Dr Obiaraeri, a guest speaker, that the current Bola Tinubu led FGN took audacious steps to reduce fuel subsidies and reform the exchange rate framework much more quickly than many Nigerians and global public anticipated, with the ambitions to substantially raise revenue. Although, according to him, these reforms were majorly aimed at repositioning the economy as a market driven one, away from the mainly economic distorting rent seeking regime of the Buhari Government, he opined that the overarching/collective impact of all the governance and structural deformities, which include regulatory, financial, logistical, market-related, security, and political hurdles, have resulted in the total derailment (not side tracking) of the Nigerian economy, as evidenced/shown by all the empirical/objective economic and human development assessment indicators/parameters.
This derailment necessitated Dakuku to recommend ways by which the government can facilitate the revitalization of the economy through manufacturing-driven non-oil sector, which in my humble opinion, also include the oil sector. They are development of export oriented infrastructure; forex & monetary stability; ease of doing business initiative; market access and trade agreements; skilled workforce; access to finance for export oriented manufacturing; technology and innovation; reliable and efficient power; and incentives for investment in export oriented manufacturing.
The participants were not in any illusion that their well researched recommendations may go down the drain like all other former recommendations due to the nonchalant attitude of the leaders to great recommendations in the past. Indeed one of the female discussants confessed that she had decided not to attend any such deliberations as the outcome of such deliberations fall on the government’s deaf ears, leading Prof Olusegun Sogbesan to conclude that Nigeria politicians are principalities and predators who are not interested in the welfare of the people but in corruptly enriching their pockets and that of their families. Dakuku concluded by warning that our failure to diversify the economic base is not due to a lack of initiatives but rather the inconsistent implementation of policies and frequent shifts in strategy. Obiaraeri concurred that our problem in Nigeria is leadership that fails to harness these abundance resources, including powerful and constructive recommendations by discussants, for the benefit of the people.
All in all, the MAN event organised by the MAN South-East branch of Anambra, Enugu, and Ebonyi, through the able leadership of Lady Ada Chukwudozie, was a huge success. It behoves on the government to proactively request for, study, and faithfully implement the lofty recommendations reached at the event for the revitalization of the Nigerian economy through manufacturing-driven sector for the benefit of all Nigerians, realising that our economy can only be as strong as our manufacturing base.