Engineers canvass policies to boost industrialisation

The Federal Government has been encouraged by the Nigerian Academy of Engineering to step up efforts and adopt industrialization-focused policies as a way to ensure the nation’s economic diversification.Information Guide Nigeria

“From Consumption to Production: The Role of Special Ago-Industrial Processing Zones in Nigeria” was the title of the webinar where the engineers made their announcement.

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Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, Senior Special Adviser to the President, African Development Bank, delivered the keynote address and expressed regret that Nigeria, which had embraced industrialization following political independence, had overlooked a sector that was essential to any successful economy.JAMB Result

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Oyelaran-Oyeyinka noted that Nigeria produced relatively little of what it consumed because the majority of the nation’s necessities were imported.

He said, “The leaders and elites tend to trump all other factors. Their choices, interests, and predilections have pushed this nation into the current trajectory of a negative economic development pathway. We must not be shy to speak the truth. Only the Truth will help those who hold the levers of leadership no matter how unpalatable.

“If money is spent in another country, circulation of that money is within the exporting country. This is the reason an industrialised product-exporting/commodity-importing country is wealthy and an undeveloped product importing/commodity-exporting country is poor. Developed countries grow rich by selling capital-intensive (thus cheap) products for a high price and buying labor-intensive (thus expensive) products for a low price.”

“The country’s investment portfolio will reveal huge amounts budgeted to purchase plants and equipment, for example, refineries, iron and steel, sugar refining, fertilizers, and so on. What has also become clear is that unlike countries where rising capital stock has led to rising living standards and high productivity, Nigeria has remained a non-industrialised underdeveloped country. We consume high-value products that we do not produce. What does Nigeria export?”