Three characteristics define the economic landscape of Nigeria. These are massive land resources, huge population, and the prevalence of poverty and unemployment. The first two characteristics describe the potential the economy has, while the last describe the reality of our situation.
For many, it is not acceptable that, with such a potential, we should still have the level of poverty and unemployment that we have in our midst.
Indeed, transforming the extensive poverty we experience into vast opportunity and prosperity remains the greatest challenge facing us. The manufacturing industry is best placed to lead the transformation. The sector had emerged after independence as the darling of the government that saw it as the means for the creation of jobs and industrialization. Import Substitution Industrialisation (ISI) strategy was adopted. It was expected to create a platform for the migration and progression from the production of finished goods to the manufacture of machinery and inputs. The manufacturing sector has not succeeded in this migration in the last forty years.
Recently, this failure in the manufacturing sector has been attributed to lack of adequate power supply. Indeed, many arguments have been made on the importance of power to the progress that we need to make on manufacturing. However, besides power, there are other areas of concern for the manufacturing sector. Power should not be the panacea for all manufacturing problems. It should be only an aspect of the work that is needed. What is absent, is a concrete and well articulated industrial policy for the manufacturing sector.
The industrial policy could be limited or extensive, but in any case, it must contain the strategic intent of the government. But while it may include the provision of power for industrial purposes, it is different to just providing power. Indeed, besides power supply, the question of whether manufacturing centres will close in Nigeria depends on the strategic intent of the government, both of now and that of the future. While everyone talks about the importance of the manufacturing centres we have, the fortunes of the places are on the decline because their strategic relevance has not been worked out and addressed. In this respect, the government needs to work out the role of manufacturing for employment creation and in the eradication of poverty.
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A thriving industry of any sort will not just happen except the government makes a strategic and relevant intent about it. Brazil has managed to develop an alternative fuel industry, using ethanol as a base, because the government took a decision to make it relevant to the Brazilian economy. Finance is a key aspect of the UK economy today because the government took decisions in that regard.
Strategic intent does not require government ownership of investment and production. It requires a decision-based policy on a certain direction the government wants to follow. For instance, the UK plans to increase the percentage of its energy derived from nuclear power, and it has developed a policy to follow. The policy is being driven by the government but the investments and production are being made by energy companies.
In the absence of any manufacturing industrial policy, one can now understand why the government is not sure, how it should respond to the present calamity that is a manufacturing sector. If there is a manufacturing industrial policy, it will dictate and predict the benefits of the different industries within the sector, and it will tell the nation the number of jobs is in industry at the moment and how much additional jobs to be created. With, this it will be easy to see the link between industrial policy and jobs and the eradication of poverty.
In conclusion, the manufacturing sector has been recognized for the potential it has to create millions of jobs, and help generate income and eradicate poverty. But many questions remain, and these questions can only be answered by a well defined, deliberate, concrete, strategic and relevant industrial policy. And this has to be led by the government. Otherwise, we Nigerians will wake up and realize that the country has used oil resources to produce power and then realize that we are not able to export anything of significance.
