The continued trend of importing locally available raw materials into the country for industrial production is a clear manifestation of the poor and inefficient implementation of industrial and economic policy in Nigeria. The revelations of the Director-General (DG) and Chief Executive Officer of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Professor Nnanyelugo Ike-Munonso, on this issue are mind-boggling. Ike-Munonso, who raised the issue at the RMRDC 38th anniversary in Abuja recently, indicated that as much as N3.53 trillion was spent importing raw materials in the first half of 2025 alone, which is clear evidence of a long-standing structural problem in Nigeria’s industrial sector. Many stakeholders agree with the DG on this issue. However, the key issue, apart from agreeing with the DG on this revelation, is how the country got itself trapped in this quagmire, despite years of effort to reverse the trend, and how it can come out of it.
 
The purpose of creating the RMRDC in 1988 was to reverse the negative trend, given that the falling crude oil prices of the 1980s exposed the country’s dangerous dependence on imported industrial inputs. Hence, at face value, it doesn’t appear that the Council has satisfactorily fulfilled its mandate in reversing this trend, either due to its lack of focus in this direction or due to forces outside its control. Largely, the functioning of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government is the pillar on which government policies are pushed through and the planks on which the reasons for failure can be determined. Though in the Nigerian context, many times, the overbearing forces outside the control of the MDAs are largely responsible for the failure of policy implementation, coupled with the now perennial burden of corruption in the country’s public sector.
  
In the defence of the Council in this unhealthy pattern, the DG traced the Council’s origin to the 1983 industrial workshop by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Federal Ministry of Industries, and the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), which led to the famous ‘The Raw Materials Question’ conference. Four decades later, that question still defines Nigeria’s industrial reality. This suggests that the problem for the persistence of the anomaly is largely systemic, involving the functioning of the legislative and executive arms of government. Even the newly packaged bill, the RMRDC Act 2022, which has passed all legislative stages to address the issues that could bring a breath of fresh air into the use of locally produced raw materials in the country in the industrial sector, is still awaiting presidential assent. The bill is structured to compel a minimum of 30 per cent value addition to raw materials before export and discourage the importation of raw materials available locally.
 
It should also be stated that the internal effort by the RMRDC through the deployment of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system aimed at launching the National Raw Materials and Products Statistical Information System (NRMPSIS) subsequently, to make data on Nigerian raw materials accessible for investors and industrial planners globally should be encouraged by the authorities, by providing adequate financial and logistic support.
 
In proffering a solution to the challenges faced by the RMRDC and other relevant arms of the Ministry of Agriculture, issues such as inadequate funding, combined with delayed releases of appropriated funds, would need to be addressed. Several times, these MDAs have just been operating on a business-as-usual basis or template, such that annual budgets and budgetary processes are just routine; such that the years just roll by with little or nothing achieved in the implementation of government policies.
  
Overall, having an inward-looking commercial policy in relating with the outside world in the realm of international trade has been pursued by various administrations in Nigeria over the years, especially with the abundance of relatively unutilized local raw materials which could have been used for industrial production. The local sourcing of raw materials is still the path to take in the revival of the industrial sector and the economy in general. All efforts should be made to support the activities of the RMRDC and ensure that they receive adequate financial, legislative and other support in the attainment of their set goals and objectives. The Presidency should ensure that the newly packaged bill, the RMRDC Act 2022, meant to support the reduction in the importation of locally available raw material, is signed into law as soon as possible in the overall interest of the Nigerian economy.