•To reassess Nigeria’s backward integration programme
Nigeria’s path to industrial revolution has gained momentum with a national industrial policy – a departure from historically fragmented draft documents – at the final stage.
As part of the efforts to fine-tune the final document, members of the Industrial Revolution Work Group (IRWG) chaired by the Minister of State for Industry, John Owan Enoh, started a two-day technical session in Lagos yesterday.
With all members of the IRWG, including other top officials of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), other private sector advocacy associations and players attending, the session deliberates on the country’s industrial policy direction, backward integration policy, material sourcing among others.
A communiqué, Enoh said, would be issued on key resolutions and agreed milestones at the close of the meeting scheduled to end today.
At an interaction with journalists on the likely content and direction of the much-awaited industrial policy, the minister said the national backward integration programme was being reviewed as the country could continue to rely on foreign raw materials to power production.
There are reports that many local industries source as much as 80 per cent of their raw materials from foreign markets, thus limiting the impacts of their operation on agriculture and related sectors.
The minister admitted the trend would no longer be acceptable as the current administration’s industrial revolution ambition would be anchored on significant local content.
According to him, the current administration is actively working to restore private sector confidence and revive moribund industries, to reawaken the country’s industrial potential.
He noted that the wave of industrial shutdowns and closures has started to decline, pointing to signs of recovery driven by increased private sector optimism and government actions aimed at rebuilding trust in the economy.
“We are not here for symbolism or routine talk-shops. We are here because something must shift permanently and decisively in the way we pursue Nigeria’s industrial ambition. Success cannot be measured by the size of our communiqué or the elegance of our presentations. It must be measured by the systems we fix, the industries we revive, the jobs we create and the lives we impact”, Enoh said in his opening remark at the meeting.
He said the theme of the session captures the urgency of the moment, just as he explained that the IRWG was not created as another advisory body but as a delivery-driven body designed to fast-track industrial programme execution.
The forum, he said, is focused on identifying practical, high-impact interventions that could be implemented quickly and scaled over time to create sustainable change across the industrial landscape.
He assured that Nigeria’s long-awaited National Industrial Policy would be unveiled soon, noting that the country, as of today, only has draft policies, which fall short of the current realities.
Enoh, a former member of the Senate, promised a full-fledged and up-to-date policy that is reflective of current economic realities and created from relevant stakeholders’ inputs.
The upcoming industrial policy, he assured, would be designed to mobilise capital, unlock long-term financing, address infrastructure gaps and drive local content utilisation, especially in raw material sourcing.
“This policy will not sit on a shelf. It will be a working document that speaks directly to the challenges of energy insecurity, weak infrastructure, regulatory bottlenecks and the need for a globally competitive manufacturing sector,” he said.
He said that Nigeria has committed over $2 billion to its backward integration programme in the sugar industry, which must not underpinned by incoherent strategy and poor compliance by the private sector participants.
