THE Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment has reiterated Nigeria’s need to diversify its economy to achieve economic development, noting that the nation will remain poor forever if pays little or no attention to diversification exercise.
The Minister, Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga explained that the fall in oil price is a warning to Nigeria to as a matter of urgency, look for new avenues to generate revenue for the country, advising that the time is now to take full advantage of areas where the country has competitive advantages to diversify its economy.
Aganga during a facility tour to Sparkwest Steel Industries Limited in Ogun State, added that industrial companies such as Sparkwest are vital to achieve economic diversification.
According to him, “It is industries like this that will help us diversify our economy. This is why the president launched the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan NIRP to focus on areas where we have competitive advantage. We have to also commend the Ogun State government because without them, none of the new 57 industries would have come up in the state. There is also the need for State and the Federal government to partner to achieve industrial revolution in the country.
“People are saying industries are dying, but they are not, but growing every day. In the last 4 years, about 57 new industries have come out of Ogun State. The president has visited Ogun State more than seven times to commission new factories. The same thing is happening in Abia State where Nigerian Breweries over the last five years have spent $1 billion having new plants in the country. The brewery is the biggest and the best in Africa. The governor of the State was telling us that most of the industries that left Aba five years ago, are coming back to Aba,” he added.
Aganga said the NIRP was working but needs consistency and continuity for another five to seven years to achieve its mandate, saying that if Nigeria continues with the initiative, it would diversify the economy, create millions of jobs and earn more foreign exchange from export of steel products from industries such as this.
“The days of relying only on crude oil are over. This is an opportunity for us to fully diversify our economy. I am very delighted that this government under President Goodluck Jonathan already has a plan to harness this opportunity to diversify the economy.”
Also speaking at the event, the Managing Director, Sparkwest Steel Industries Limited, Niyi Oyedele, said the company had grown out of an import business into a world-class manufacturer locally producing fabricated and galvanized steel structures, electrical transmission towers, power stations/substations, and telecoms towers and accessories for the Nigerian market.
He added that the journey so far had been turbulent; pointing out that import duties on raw materials have continued to plague the growth of industrial activity.
While commending the minister for reversing the duty to five per cent, thereby helping increased growth in their industrial operations, Oyedele went further to say “The Ogun State Government has given tremendous support to our Factory and other Industries within the state. Indeed, Governor Ibikunle Amosun’s support and cooperation constitute one of the reasons for our success”.
“Today, we are among leading suppliers to the telecoms, oil and gas and power industries. It is a fact that we have done lots of exports to countries like Ivory Coast, Cameroun, Ghana, Gabon and the like,” he said.
According to Oyedele, the power industry is still a major challenge to industrial development, calling on the minister to get the industry to patronize local production.
“We are expanding our factory by building a rolling mill, we currently have staff strength of 600, but we will increase it to 2,500 by the time we complete the mill,” he said.
