CICAN tasks industry minister on pro-market policies

The Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) has charged the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, with sound pro-business policies critical to reviving the real sector of Nigeria’s economy.

In a statement issued by the President, Charles Okonji, CICAN urged the minister to hit the ground running by formulating policies that would revitalise the productive sectors vital for diversifying the economy away from oil.

According to him, the minister’s emphasis should focus on how to upgrade the non-oil sector of the economy, while also reviewing the performance and achievements of her immediate predecessor to identify the lacuna and devise strategies to free Nigeria from slavery imposed by other countries on account of over-dependence on oil.

The statement said one of the strongest variables determining the poor performance of the industrial sector is poor power supply, saying as a result of the power crisis, local manufacturers cannot compete with their foreign counterparts.

“If this problem remains unresolved, all the promises made by the government would remain an idle fancy and mere grandiloquence. Uzoka-Anite must liaise with its counterpart in the Ministry of Power to address this challenge,” CICAN advised.

On made-in-Nigeria products, CICAN said locally-made products must be marketed abroad, advising that to achieve this, the minister must reinvigorate the activities of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) to enable it to project Nigerian products to the outside world.

“The minister should make this agency more proactive by overhauling its operations to enable it to function effectively. This is where cooperation with the organised private sector becomes imperative.

“The minister should take a critical look at the quality of goods produced and exported out of Nigeria very seriously. This is very important because the barometer for measuring the level of economic development and improvement in the quality of lives of the citizenry of a country is the quality and standards of goods and services produced and consumed in that country,” CICAN added.

It, however, called on the minister to sufficiently equip the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to enable the body to enforce standards in the country.