Insecurity hindering industrialisation in North East, says MAN DG

Director General, Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir said that insecurity in the North East region has adversely affected individual businesses.

Speaking during a panel session at the January 9 Collective, J9C 13th anniversary lecture themed: “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reforms in Enhancing the EoDB in Nigeria”. Ajayi-Kadir hinged his submission on the recent closure of shops due to a hostile operating environment driven by insecurity.

He added that the manufacturing sector has not historically been handled well by the Nigerian government, adding that they pay leap service to the sector because they do not see it as a business endeavour.

According to him, there is a need for an industrial policy that will promote industrial development, incentivise private sector participation, and allow inter-sectoral engagement.

Ajayi-Kadir lamented that Nigeria does not have an industrial policy that allows that sector to engage with other sectors and guide foreign relations. He stressed that Nigeria has no business promoting hot money; calling on the manufacturing sector to focus on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

He maintained that Nigeria must have a system that attracts investors who will benefit from the country’s raw material and natural resources to retain inclusive development for the economy.

“You need to grow your domestic economy, there is no one that would help you develop your country, if you must have investment from foreigners, it has to be the one that you have proposed to have, but they will never come if they have seen that foreign firms are leaving Nigeria.

“If you make companies in Nigeria prosperous, people will come; if you make the environment conducive, people would come. When I joined MAN about 30 years ago we had more industries, we lost 732 members of the association, and 60 percent of our members have closed in the North East.”