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Nigeria must rise up and fight dumping to save its economy and prevent a mass crisis that comes from the continued loss of jobs for youths, according to Giandomenico Massari, an Italy-born naturalized Nigerian with 45 years in electrical and electronic engineering professions.
“Manufacturing is the backbone of any serious economy and Nigeria has everything it needs to become the new China,” Massari who heads a manufacturing firm as well as a technical services company said. “This is supposed to be so with Africa’s largest that has all sorts of resources, from agricultural resources to minerals.”
In an interview with newsmen in his Trans-Amadi, Port Harcourt headquarters, the engineer, who is also the Giandomenico Massari, National Vice President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) warned about the danger of ignoring dumping. “Nigeria should not be allowed to become a dumping ground, it is the easiest way to destroy any economy and to kill jobs.”
He said few persons gain in a dumped economy while the majority suffer job loss, forex crisis, inflation, crime and instability. “Nigeria has been inundated with sub-standard products that do not add value to the economy. We need an economy that produces almost everything that is imported and in high quality. Nigeria already has high quality in some products and it means Nigeria can produce high quality in almost every product.”
Furthermore, Masari noted Nigeria should target being an exporting country and should target how to replicate what is happening in China because we have all the potential, especially labour and other resources. To do this, he said, “All stakeholders must work for the same goal. It is not good for private interests to sabotage this path and divert the gains. This is where change must be targeted, creating public interest instead of private interest. There is a need to sanitise things and boost manufacturing in Nigeria but this is not happening at the moment.”
He went on to declare that Nigeria can even become a place where investors can manufacture anything at a cheap cost to create competitive products for both export and the local market. “This will bring benefits to the country not only by creating jobs but by creating values and foreign exchange (forex) that would be pouring into the country. By this, you are enriching the economy and the people. There should be advocacy in this and all should rally around MAN as a major backbone for the economy.”
He said it is to push for Nigeria to be a manufacturing hub that he joined MAN in 1997; “My reason to participate in the affairs of MAN is to boost the body that caters for manufacturers and to support it to boost manufacturing. The objective is to strive to manufacture high-quality products and also to make sure that all the systems involved in manufacturing are protected and developed.”
He said MAN is the umbrella body of all manufacturers and is the foremost body for manufacturing sector. “We thus chose to join MAN as the best way to carry out that role, not only for our company but for the benefits of manufacturing in Nigeria because when the benefits spread around Nigeria, it will touch everybody.”
On what he plans to pursue as National Vice President of MAN (East: Rivers/Bayelsa chapter, Akwa Ibom/Cross River chapter, Imo/Abia chapter, and Anambra/Enugu/Ebonyi chapter), Massari: “My duty is to carry all the chairmen along. They are the voice of their chapters. Together, we start pushing to the headquarters that will push to the FG and to every relevant body that has a duty to play in boosting manufacturing.”
He mentioned building a database as one major task before him, saying “My first task is to build a database of members; what they do, what they can produce, the certifications they have, etc. I have made it clear that this is what I want to start with. This is what investors want to look at to know what to support or where to invest or who to partner with. It is a lot of jobs to accomplish but let us start first.”
“In the same vein, we will keep trying to make governments make friendly policies for manufacturing and for operations. It could be about patronizing local products. If the state governors understand the criticality of manufacturing and what they should do to cause it to happen, they would be enthusiastic drivers. Everybody will be the winner. That is the only way, otherwise problems.”
