Whatever happened to SMID programme?

THE Guardian Newspaper of March 4 reported, among other things, a call by the top management of the Bank of Industry (BOI), for local manufacturing organizations to be operationally inter-linked. BOI officials had reportedly made the appeal during a scheduled factory tour of some textile manufacturers in Lagos. The merit of the call is self-evident; the call therefore instantly puts me in mind of a related programme, which the Federal Government had purpose-specially established to address Nigeria’s less-than coordinated drive towards industrial development: the SMID programme.

SMID is an acronym for Strategic Management of Industrial Development, a programme which the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Industry had developed back in 1989 with the assistance of an agency of the United Nations Organization. The principal objective of the programme is the integration of all facets of local industrial systems in conformity with global best competitive practices.

A rather commendable programme that should be made to succeed at all costs; especially with the present national aspiration for Nigeria to be listed among the 20 most industrialized countries in the world in 2020. Therefore, one had assumed that the SMID programme was well in progress until the recent call by the BoI. Whatever happened to that laudable programme? Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, please tell.

If Nigeria is to join the club of industrialized nations, the SMID programme must not be allowed to go the way previous government-supervised programmes had gone, because this is the one national developmental programme that captures all the essentials of effective industrialism in an increasingly competitive world. It is an all-embracing programme, comprising the formulators and implementers of public policy on industrial development, representatives of the private sector, industrial operators, the financial sector, the academia and the research and development institutions. It is a private sector-driven programme. The SMID programme is a summation of the hands-on experiences of the emerging industrializing countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, etc with a focus on the inherent mutual benefits of effective cooperation and consultation between all the various sectors and institutions in a political economy. The scope of such consultation would range from agreements on achievable national aspirations; targets; optional options for achieving targets, which are realistic; and the assignments of responsibilities to all the parties that compose a particular SMID programme.

In such a scenario, government policy formulators and project monitors are constantly in tune with the progress and challenges of the industrial sector; they are thus able to nip in the bud issues that might have hindered the attainment of set national targets. The envisaged result is a holistic national industrial system, optimally inter-linked where the outputs of some industries are the primary material inputs of other industries. Nigeria, must of necessity, religiously implement the SMID programme.

It would be recalled that Nigeria’s current seven chapter industrial policy, which was released to the public in January 1989 did highlight that the country’s poorly coordinated industrialization had inexorable led to the following:
High geographical concentration;
High production cost;
Low value added;
Low capacity utilization;

High import content of manufacturing activities; and, Low level of foreign investment in manufacturing.

According to the same industrial policy document, the aforesaid has stunted Nigeria’s industrialization and made the country’s industrial products unattractive at the international market. This realization had led to the much-discussed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). Shortly after SAP came into operation, major conceptual flaws came into bold relief. The National Committee on Industrial Development (NCID), was subsequently saddled with the task of leading the national endeavour to address the identified lapses in the country’s industrial quest. That endeavour culminated in the establishment of the Strategic Management of Industrial Development Programme. An illustrious member of the body that gave birth to SMID, Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, a one-time chairman of the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank (NDIB), had, in a lecture he delivered at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Victoria Island, Lagos, in 1996, tellingly surmised the benefits of the SMID programme as follows:

A private sector-led industrial initiative fully backed by government regulatory machinery stands a better chance of outliving transient regimes;

Representatives of industrial enterprises that have survived the economic travails of the recent past constitute a body of experienced entrepreneurs who speak authoritatively on matters affecting industry;

The interactive, consultative and cooperative principles of the Strategic Management of Industrial Development exercise is the best way to remove the mutual suspicious between government officials and entrepreneurs, and beyond that, it is a two–way channel of learning the problems and constraints of each side;

There has to be a resurgence of domestic manufacturing activities before there could be meaningful overseas investment in the Nigerian economy;

Attempts at commencing positive movement in the industrial sector would excite macro-economic management since the industry lobby could be relied upon to be rather vocal in their demands. Confidence begets confidence;

Once the vision of industrial prosperity is sketched, the task of institutional building such as the variety of long-term finance institutions, the role of international agencies and institutional investors who view investments and assistance from long –term perspective will be clearer and better defined. The Nigerian stock market itself will respond, and the Nigerian financial institutions should at last widen, deepen and aid more meaningfully the mobilization of resources for medium and long–term activities;

The success of SMID process can very well divert the energies of significant members of the society from destructive policies to creative enterprise building. For example, the consensus building aspect of SMID is a veritable lesson in democratic practices, such as give and take, compromise, fairness, and justice once there is a commonality of goals and shared values.

More need not be said; relevant organs of government should dust off their files on the SMID programme and purposefully pursue its full implementation if Nigeria is to feature on the list of industrialized nations in the foreseeable future.

The voting graphics of the just–concluded 2015 presidential election compel brief commentary here. Three distinct blocks stand out in bold relief from the collated votes. In spite of her present 37 administrative units, Nigeria’s primordial three – regional spirit lives on: She is composed of essentially three personalities. In truth, therefore, Nigerians have been living a lie since 1967 when the “splitting up” experiment commenced. The persistent call for a national dialogue on Nigeria’s national–question has been as right as rain. That undiminished call is a call for a review of the 1967 adventurous experiment. Experimentation without diligent reviews is a recipe for disaster.

Therefore, the next National Assembly must vigorously deliberate on the over 600 recommendations of the 2014 National Conference, as an all-important first step towards resolving the lingering national–question. The three essential personalities composing Nigeria must amicably agree on the modus operandi to achieve the envisioned “One Destiny”. May God grant us the will to expunge the sovereignty-threatening imperfections within our make-up before it is too late.

• Nkemdiche is a Consulting Engineer in Abuja.