Funmi Ogundare
The Senior Special Adviser on Industrialisation to the President, African Development Bank (AfDB), Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, yesterday, called for the strategic promotion of industrial technological capabilities for manufactured exports as well as investments in infrastructure and institutions that will foster ease of doing business in the country.
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka made this known in a lecture titled,’From Consumption to Production: The Role of Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones’, which he delivered during a webinar at the assembly of Fellows for the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAEng).
He expressed concern about the widening wealth gap in technology and scientific knowledge between developed production nations and a poor consumption nation like Nigeria, saying that the country has failed to produce and sell such to others.
“If crude oil was the basis of wealth, Nigeria would not be too far down the prosperity ladder, yet, we are sadly among the poorest on earth. Rich nations on the one hand have a long history of producing, learning from their mistakes and selling to consumption nations.
“A poor nation on the other hand, possesses enormous natural resources, but lag behind in the technological knowledge necessary to transform their natural endowment to high value goods,” he said.
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka recalled that the United States has 12.85 million manufacturing jobs and employs 8.5 per cent of the workforce, adding that its manufacturers also contribute over $2.3 trillion to the economy every quarter. China, he added, leads the world in manufacturing output with over $2.01 trillion in output.
“Manufacturing constitutes 27 per cent of China’s overall national output, which accounts for 20 per cent of the world’s manufacturing output. Germany, Italy, Turkey and South Korea have the highest percentage of their workforce employed in manufacturing,” the don said, adding that the wealthiest nations are the ones with the strongest industrial capacities.
For Nigeria to develop, the Senior Special Adviser said the nation needs the agreement of leaders in political positions and elites as was done by countries like South Korea, China and other nations who were able to achieve a high degree of industrialisation and sustained growth over four to five decades.
“There is a need for renewed commitment to industrialisation as part of a broader agenda for economic diversification, resilience to external shocks including by foreign wars, foreign exchange shortage caused by drop in oil prices, the development of productive capacity for high and sustained economic growth and the creation of employment opportunities and substantial poverty reduction,” Oyelaran-Oyeyinka stressed.
In his remarks, a former Vice Chancellor of University of Lagos and Vice President of the academy, Prof. Ramon Bello, said the topic should interest all Nigerians considering the challenges of the oil boom, adding that agriculture is an area that the citizens should be adding value to.
“ Agro-processing is essential. I believe that this should be an opener to all who have interest in agriculture,” he said.
