The last leg of the ceremonies that marked the 50th anniversary of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has brought to the fore the role of the manufacturing sector in achieving the objectives of the SDGs in the country, writes Dike Onwuamaeze and Oluchi Chibuzor.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) held a high-level conversation on industrialisation and sustainable development on October 7 with the theme: “Industrialisation – A Pathway to Achieving the SDGs.”
The National President of MAN, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, said that the theme is premised on the urgent need for us as industrialists to examine and prioritise the nexus between industrialisation and sustainable development.
The heading of SDG 9 as articulated by the United Nations in 2015 is industry, innovation, and infrastructure. It urged nations around the world to build resilient infrastructure, foster innovation, promote inclusiveness and sustainable industrialisation.
The world apex organisation stated that the story of industrial development has changed economies and helped drive major changes in society.
But it averred that without sustainable practices and infrastructure in place, economic growth has left vast sections of people behind.
“For instance, more than 937 million of the world’s population in 2016 does not have access to electricity. For many lower-income countries, the existent infrastructure constraints affect firms’ productivity by around 40 per cent, “he said.
The World Bank projected in 2020 that 95.7 million Nigerians would live below the poverty line in 2022. The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR), reported in 2020 that 40.1 per cent of Nigerians (82.9 million people) were living below the poverty line while another 25.4 percent (52.6 million people) were vulnerable.
The report further revealed that more than three-quarters of the population in rural areas were either poor or vulnerable, yet even in urban areas— where the poverty headcount rate was far lower at 18.0 percent—around a quarter of the population would be vulnerable.
To address these challenges and ensure that benefits arising from industrialization and economic growth were impact on the poor and the vulnerable, the MAN assembled some of the most prominent technocrats, scholars and industrial entrepreneurs to shed light on the subject.
They include the Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation, Ms. Amina Mohammed; the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha; the Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs, Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire; the Regional Director, Nigeria Regional Office Hub and UNIDO Representative to ECOWAS, Ambassador Jean Bakole; the Director General of Nigeria Conservation Foundation, Dr. Muhtari Aminu-Kano and the Managing Director, Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mr. Carl Cruz.
Nigeria’s SDGs Story
Mustapha gave a broad and detailed review of the country’s journey in the implementation of the SDGs and the role the manufacturing sector and the larger private sector would play to enhance its realisation.
He traced the countries quest to become one of the world’s industrial nations to the dawn of Nigeria’s independence in the 1960s when Late Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa started discussions on developing a steel plant for the country. Unfortunately, this dream was cut short by military rude intervention in the country’s politics. However, the dream was revived in the 1980s by late President Shehu Shagari, but was again frustrated by the interplay of international conspiracy aided by local collaborators that have ensured Nigeria does not develop capability in steel production.
He noted that the conversation presented an opportunity to critically review issues inherent in Nigeria’s quest for industrialisation, identify innovative mechanisms for improving the current situation, and come out with a clear strategy as well as a roadmap on how to galvanise the manufacturing sector, with effective stakeholder involvement, to put Nigeria on the track of industrialisation.
“This is not only for attaining the SDGs but most importantly to have a nation where growth is not only measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but focused on the whole spectrum of the Human Development Index (HDI),” Mustapha said.
He acknowledged that SDGs are principally a wake-up call for the developing and less-industrialised countries of the world, especially Nigeria since its goals would be enhanced by industrialisation.
He, however, tasked the Nigerian industrialists to toward the green ideology in order to mitigate the growing effect of industrialization on climate change by reducing the use of fossil fuels and other climate change inducing production and consumption habits and systems.
“The Green ideology has given birth to three emerging concepts that are critical to achieving SDGs in recent times. They are green growth, green industry, and green economy.
“Green growth is an alternative to the conventional economic model of resource exploitation, energy use, structural change, and a transition towards less capital and resource-intensive activities.
“A green industry requires the application of Industrial Energy Efficiency (IEE) and Resource Efficiency & Cleaner Production (RECP). The concept is being driven by the United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) across Africa. Therefore, it is important that any industrialisation strives for Nigeria moving forward should embrace the IEE & RECP process, in that way the relevant SDGs would have been naturally taken up,” Mustapha said.
Enabling environment
He assured that government would continue to provide the necessary enabling environment for the private sector to engage in investments in industrialisation that would bring the necessary economic development of Nigeria. Nigeria needs more private sector participation to grow our infrastructural stock.
“There is no doubt that industrialisation has been the singular most driving force for economic growth and development. The benefits of industrialisation are part of the various SDGs and with the new concepts of green growth, green industry, and green economy; no doubt industrialisation is a dependable pathway to achieving the sustainable development objectives.
“At the moment, Nigeria is yet to make appreciable progress in its quest for industrialization due to the various challenges which have been highlighted in this speech. It is, however, important for all the relevant sectors to come together and change this narrative for the better,” Mustapha said.
In her contribution to the conversation, the Deputy-Secretary General of the United Nation, who participated virtually in the event, said that the United Nations would support Nigeria to harness its industrial capacity to contribute to the SDGs through jobs creation.
Amina stated that inclusive and sustainable industrial development is important to achieving the SDGs.
She enjoined Nigerian industrialists to promote sustainable industrial production through efficient use of resources in a manner that would promote the attainment of zero waste as stated in the 2030 agenda of the SDGs 7, 9, and 12.
According to Amina, sustainable recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 “must be guided by the SDGs. The UN stands ready to support Nigeria in harnessing industry and making progress towards the goals.
“The UN global compact is a special initiative of the Secretary-General dedicated to promoting sustainable business and can be a key partner in this process. The global compact had a local network in Nigeria, which would grow in the coming years.
“Additionally, as part of the global compact new African strategy, a hub will be established in Abuja to support business across the continent in our joint effort to achieve the SDGs.”
Eco-friendly Practices
For Professor Olaopa, no other theme would have been more appropriate than the one MAN has chosen on industrialisation that is done sustainably through a growth model that is rooted in eco-friendly practices.
He said that any conversation on policy and business re-modeling meant to drive Nigeria on sustainable industrialisation must address the country’s consumption culture that depended mostly on things it does not produce.
Olaopa said that Nigeria must focus on reconciling the discrepancy between Nigeria’s productive capacities and the country’s developmental consumerist culture, which Nigeria has been wallowing in since the advent of oil wealth in the 1970s.
“This is the most significant and counterintuitive occurrence in Nigeria’s unfolding development. And in economic theory, under the principle of comparative advantage, a country ought to produce more and consume less of products for which it has a comparative advantage.
“Whereas Nigeria remains the biggest economy in the region, it must as a matter of national survival, and with redoubled urgency, creatively confront and resolve our country’s high-consuming mono-cultural economic structure that is driven by what Alfred Marshall called ‘negative production’ – a weak productive capacity that ensures that in order to feed our growing consumption pattern and unproductive proclivities, the country imports what it possesses the capacity to produce.
“The point is that this economic culture is not sustainable and now that the global demand for crude oil is disappearing with a global accelerating shift to greater adoption of clean and environmentally-friendly technologies and industrial processes,” Olaopa said.
Bankole, in his contribution, premised a successful industrialisation development that would meet the SDGs on the adoption of eco-friendly practices via access to energy, especially clean and renewable energy, adding that the country needed infrastructure development, value-added industrialisation, and empowerment of the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in order to progress on achieving industrial sustainable development goals.
He said that Nigeria is currently doing well in terms of infrastructural development that would enhance the emergence of a manufacturing sector that could produce what its people consumed.
Clean energy
The UNIDO representative stated that access to affordable and clean energy is essential for industrialisation to thrive in the country, adding that the country could not make meaningful advances without embracing digitalisation. “We must think on how we can focus on science and technology and supporting research institutes to come up with innovative tools that can help address a number of issues in the manufacturing sector,” Bankole said.
Orelope-Adefulire, SSA to the President on SDGs, said that three dimensions to ending poverty are economic, social and environmental.
She said: “To make progress on SDG 1 and 2 on poverty and zero hunger, we have to make progress on SDG 8 and 9 on infrastructure, industry, and innovation.”
She also said that Nigeria would continue to struggle on the provision of decent jobs and economic growth until the country diversified its economy from oil and gas.
Adding to the debate on sustainable industrialization in Nigeria, the Director General of Nigeria Conservation Foundation, Dr. Muhtari Aminu-Kano, stated that industrialists should pay equal attention to economic, social, and environmental aspects of sustainability.
“I think now there is growing recognition that businesses are actually standing on a three-legged stool. I think that it is important to balance that stool by looking at the other two legs-social and environmental aspects. They shall address two major evils, which are climate change and the loss of nature and biodiversity. I think that this recognition is very important,” Aminu-Kano said.
The Managing Director of Unilever Nigeria Plc, Mr. Carl Cruz, used the occasion to state that Nigerian industrial organisations are living up to the challenge of balancing the tripod of profitability, sustainability, and environmental protection.
Cruz said: “As an industry, we have collaborated to develop recycling of plastics while more businesses are reducing their carbon footprint and are using solar energy in various parts of their operations.
“The industry strongly believes that it is imperative to innovate and transit to blue eco-friendly models and no one will doubt this. There is a clear need for businesses to make a positive social impact in communities they operate in and while at the same time making financial sense with stakeholders, otherwise you would not have the planet in the very near future,” he said.
