Category: Industry

The Federal Government is set to reduce the cost of accessing funds by Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has said.

Aganga said he has already directed the Bank of Industry (BoI) , the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN)and other agencies to collaborate on creating about five million jobs in the next two years.

The minister spoke during the third series of the empowerment programme for small and growing businesses entitled, “Market access in Nigeria”.

The cost of accessing funds to start and run SMEs includes costs associated with securitisation as well as CAC and FIRS processes, among others.

Aganga said all over the world, SMEs empowerment had become the main economic growth strategy, considering the high employment generation capacities of SMES, adding that, with about 17million SMEs in Nigeria, the creation of five million jobs was very possible.

His words: “Recent data provided by the National MSMEs collaborative survey undertaken by SMEDAN and the National Bureau of Statistics put the number of MSMEs in Nigeria at 17,284,671million, with total employment put at 32,414,884. If each of these SMEs are empowered to create one job each, that makes about 17 million jobs; if 50 per cent of this figure create one job each, that means 8.5 million jobs will be created.

“If a quarter of the total are empowered, and they create one job each, over four million jobs will be created. So the figure is workable and conservative and I’ve directed the Parastatals to get it done as a key performance index. Our job is to put structures in place to make it happen.”

While encouraging more entrepreneurs to come up with great ideas that could create quality jobs and enhance inclusive economic growth, he said the Federal Government was committed to providing the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.

Forum for Southsouth Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (FOSSCCIMA)has called on the Federal Government to partner with the private sector in the creation of a platform for entrepreneurial training, mentoring and reorientation programs.

Speaking during the induction of some stakeholders, the President, FOSSCCIMA, Prince Billy Gillis Harry said FOSSCCIMA will partner with the government to create feasible re-orientation programme for re-engineering the thought processes of people who need re-integration into the larger society.

“ It is our humble way of contributing to the peace, security and stability of the region, so that we can enjoy a robust economy.

“The gigantic task of regional emancipation requires the buy-in of all of us. It is a true saying that if we do not stand united, we will fall divided. We therefore urge you all to join hands in this determined and credible effort to partner with various relevant stakeholders in creating the region of our dreams.

We will welcome every partner. We will embrace every sponsor. We will work with all and sundry to make our objective a realisable proposition,” Billy said.

He said the chamber has made some contributory policy suggestions which are under intense contemplation.

“We believe acceptance will be evidenced by the implementation of these policies as the various stakeholders work in concert with the FOSSCCIMA teams,’ he said.

Harry said FOSSCCIMA is strategically positioned to ensure the optimisation of opportunities for the economic transformation of the Southsouth region.

He said the chamber also create avenues to generate local and international opportunities for members, sponsors, local communities and the entire region.

His words: “We Work closely with the relevant government parastatals to ensure effective local content participation, creation of a point for exchange of business best practice and institutional framework for the enhancement of sustainable economic growth across the region and to attract Foreign Direct Investment.

“The creation of international awareness of available, viable and credible business opportunities in the region through various programs.

“We also work closely with government to successfully promote social and economic re-orientation and reintegration programs and therefore guarantee peace and stable security for the region.

“In its short but very active span since coming into being, FOSSCCIMA has had far reaching discussions and consultation with a broad spectrum of stakeholders on key issues such as security, economic empowerment within the region and infrastructural development among others.”

Nigeria and other African countries have marked Africa’s Industrialisation Day. The Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) during the event reviewed the country’s industrial development. TOBA AGBOOLA reports. 

The 25th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) in July 1989 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia declared November as the Africa Industrialisation Day. This was followed by a proclamation by the United Nations Assembly.

It is an occasion yearly to draw attention to the problems and challenges of industrialisation in Africa.

This year’s theme was Accelerating industrialisation for boosting intra-Africa trade. The Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment in collaboration with the United Nation Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) said they were working to promote industrial development for poverty reduction and had taken the lead in industrialisation by raising awareness on its role in Africa development and galvanises international support from stakeholders, including governments, the private sector and the civil society.

Speaking in Abuja during an event to mark the African Industrialisation Day, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, said this development has compelled the need for infrastructure development, efficient trade facilitation, cost-effective transport services, logistics and customs reforms in Africa for rapid industrialisation and development.

His words: There is no doubt, Nigeria’s economic and industrial potentials as the leading economic power in Africa will remain unfulfilled if the barriers to inter-regional trade are not addressed. This fact has made the Federal Government to establish a taskforce on Trade Facilitation to fast track free movement of goods and services within the ECOWAS corridor.

“Subsequently, the taskforce held a Consultative Forum with relevant governments and private sector operators to harvest their views for effective trade facilitation in Nigeria to put in place measure to address challenges such as movement of goods and people around the import corridors occasioned by numerous check points, multiplicity of agencies, non-adherence to ETLS protocol or delay in cargo clearance, non-observance of axle weight regulation and over-loading, which had been a barrier to trade in Nigeria”.

In addition, the Federal Government also kick-started the establishment of the Transnational Border Market with the state governments, European Union and Department For International Development (DFID), in the six geo-political zones starting with Okerete, a Trans Sahara Trade route in Southwest zone and others in the Northeast (Camboru Ngala in Bornu State), Northwest (Kamba in Kebbi State), Northcentral (Bambana in Niger State), Southsouth (Mfun in Cross Rivers State) and Southeast (Lokpanta Regional Market in Abia State).

The Transnational Border markets when fully implemented are expected to create more than five million direct and indirect jobs, formalise the informal trade activities, modernise the border posts with the associated infrastructure as well as curb the influx of substandard and hazardous goods into the country.

To sustain the tempo of economic activities in the country, Aganga said the Federal Government through his Ministry in partnership with UNIDO and relevant agencies of the government has reviewed the nation’s industrial policy.

Aganga said the backward integration policy has been consistently pursued and sustained in the cement sub-sector, which would enable Nigeria to be self-sufficient in the production of cement.  This has prompted the Federal Government to also introduce backward integration in the non-oil sector of the economy.

Recently, the Federal Government kicked off the implementation of the Nigerian Sugar Master Plan with many incentives to stakeholders and investors to raise the country’s local sugar production to a self-sufficiency level, stem the tide of high importation of the commodity, contribute to the production of ethanol/generation of about 411MW of electricity and create 117,181 jobs.

UNIDO has been a major development partner to the country and has contributed to the nation’s industrial development and improvement in the living standards of the peopl through its numerous programmes and projects across the country.

UNIDO and the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment and state governments are executing projects, such as three ton/hr rice mill in Ebonyi and Benue states, Common Facility Centres in Aba, Kano and Benin, salt processing  in Ebony State, as well as, renewable energy in Enugu, Bauchi, Benin, Osun and Taraba States, as well as, oil palm in Akwa Ibom and Ondo states.

Last month, the Federal Government inaugurated implementation committees on UNIDO Country Programme for Nigeria. The objective of the Country Programme is to promote indus trialisation and help Nigeria achieve its goal of becoming one of the 20 largest economies by 2020.

A significant achievement recorded in the last one year has been the strategy adopted by Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to reduce the volume of sub-standard products from 85 per cent to 74 per cent, with a target of 30 per cent reduction by the end of this year.

Notable improvements were recorded with life-endangering products, such that the volume of substandard electric bulbs had been reduced from 80 per cent to 50 per cent, reinforced steel bar (45 per cent to 30 per cent), while the volume of substandard tyres reduced from 60 per cent to 50 per cent.

As part of efforts to improve the country’s business environment and make it the preferred  investment hub, the Ministry of Trade and Investment has strengthened its One Stop Investment Centre and streamlined investment procedures  to remove bottlenecks in business registration, incorporation and granting of permits and licences, among other things.

Due to lack of internationally acceptable national accreditation body, UNIDO is collaborating with the ministry through SON and the Department of Weights and Measures to set up National Quality Infrastructure of Nigeria aimed at creating the missing quality control bodies and link up all stakeholders through a well accepted mechanism and initiate their acceptance to improve quality of products and services to be exchanged in Nigeria markets.

The minister said in the last quarter, Nigeria recorded a landmark achievement in its Investment Climate Reforms Programme as the Corporate Affairs Commission, a parastatal under the Ministry of Trade and Investment, kicked off its start-to-finish 24-hour business incorporation service.

According to him, the ministry has started the Nigeria Investment Climate Reform Programme, partnering with the World Bank and DFID. Also inaugurated was the Investor Care Committee and Doing Business and Competitiveness Committee as part of our investment climate reform programme.

“The target of government is to achieve significant improvement in Nigeria’s Ease of Doing Business ranking by a minimum 103 points by 2015 and improve on Nigeria’s Global Competitiveness ranking by 75 points by 2015.

The ministry has strengthened the One-Stop Investment Centre in the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC) and coordinate investment facilitation between all relevant government agencies.

Onne Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone, in Rivers State has attracted investment worth $6 billion and investment commitments in the FTZ were worth $6.7 billion in the last one year. Free Trade Zones across the country under the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority also generated $4.4 billion investment in the last one year.

The ministry in partnership with UNIDO is working hard to sustain the industrial development development and skills acquisition, affordable finance for SME’s with Special Funding Scheme for women and strengthening use of Free Trade Zones in a more strategic manner, as well as improve the country’s investment inflow so that it could take its rightful position as major player in the global economy,”he said.

However, African industrialisation stride has been hindered by inadequate infrastructure, limitations of small and fragmented markets and inadequate diversification of industrial structures.  This has resulted in low levels of trade among African countries.

The high costs and lengthy duration of movement of goods across African borders have reduced commerce and industry competition and discouraged trade and investment.

Africa still accounts for a low share of global manufacturing. The share of the region in global MVA fell from 1.2 per cent in 2000 to 1.1 per cent in 2008. In developing Asia, it rose from 13 per cent to 25 per cent over the same period. In terms of exports, Africa’s share of global manufacturing exports rose from one per cent in 2000 to 1.3 per cent in 2008.

Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc  has launched a dual empowerment programme in block making and technical apprenticeship aimed at improving the socio-economic status of its host communities and the Nigerian society.

The programmes include the Elephant Supaset Block Makers Empowerment Programme and the Lafarge Technical Apprenticeship Scheme, which are designed to help small scale block makers and school leavers with technical skills and zeal to venture into the vocation while Apprenticeship Scheme is to impart technical skills in community youths in order to support their leadership and success in their chosen endeavours.

There were 10 beneficiaries of the block makers programme drawn from some communities in Ogun State and they were given full tools used for block making like moulder, wheelbarrow, wooden panel, shovel, water, hose among others and also, there were over 20 apprentices examined and selected to take on with the scheme.

In his address, at the Lafarge WAPCO CSR day in Ewekoro, Ogun State, the Managing Director, Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria PLC, Mr Joseph Hudson, said the Elephant Supaset Block Makers Empowerment Programme will help the willing and committed block makers to either start up or expand their businesses and move from unemployment or small scale artisans to medium sized entrepreneurs and employers of labour.

He said the company is running the programme through dual partnerships with SEAP Microfinance Bank to help in training, mentoring and monitoring the beneficiaries and also with the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) who will guide them on technical standards and adherence.

As for the Apprenticeship scheme, he said it is an 18-month intensive programme designed for science based school certificate holders to enable youths from different communities to acquire the necessary technical skills in electrical, mechanical and automation with plenty of opportunities for hands-on experience within the company’s operations.

He added that a Lafarge WAPCO Diploma Certificate will be awarded to the graduates of the scheme which will be the minimum requirement for employment in their organisation.

He said: “We also have annual presentation of developmental initiatives to the Ewekoro community through education, youth empowerment, farmer’s empowerment and infrastructural support. 120 Ewekoro community undergraduates will be recipients of this year’s bursary award, 101, 600 exercise books will be distributed to primary and secondary schools within the community. In all, 1,128 undergraduates have benefitted from the bursary awards in the past five years.”

“Another 107 Ewekoro youths will be equipped with various working tools to assist in improving the economic power of the communities such as motorcycles, sewing machines, bags of flour, and washing machines among others. Also, 122 farmers are supported with tangible working tools to ensure food security and transportation of their produce like tricycle. Other projects include rehabilitation of roads and bridges, building of drainages, schools and many others he said.”

He said over N100 million was earmarked for development programmes in 11 host communities in Ewekoro.

One of the partners of the Block Makers Empowerment Programme, the Managing Director, SEAP, Dr. Dokun Olatunde, said the beneficiaries will get everlasting income from the initiative as the programme is to create a future and better networks for youths.

The National Assembly will soon pass the new bill on standardisation.

The  bill, which has gone through the  second reading, is  set for the public hearing before the end of this month.

The review of the Standardisation Act is to give the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) more powers to carry out its stated objectives of reducing influx of substandard products into the country.

SON’s Director-General, Dr. Joseph Odumodu, said this during a visit to the LG Electronics factory in Apapa.

According to him, the review of SON Act, which has gone past the second reading, was last reviewed in 1990 and and its provisions will cover so many areas to further improve SON activities.

Odumodu said there would be a collaboration in the next four months where SON could make a validation to test some of the products in electronic market.

He said: “We are so impressive with this kind of innovation the LG team brought to our market. The University of Ibadan has worked on electronic basis that knocked down mosquitoes to prove the innovation scientifically. It is not the cooling effect that does the killing but the small feature attached to it. Although there are different species of mosquitoes, I hope LG and other Nigerian universities would subject that revolution to additional scientific proof.”

He reiterated that the reason the visit was made was because SON is concerned about all the products in the market, adding that they have visited South Korea and discovered there is a ne1ed to ensure better collaboration between SON and manufacturers of electronic products, saying that almost every LG television, refrigerator and air conditioner are all assembled in Apapa, which is the biggest factory in Nigeria.

Speaking on the quality of LG electronics during the visit, Odumodu said: “The visit helps the work we are doing in SON which, therefore, helps us to know the kind of features we should look out for in LG’s brands. If I see an LG television set in the market without a Fouani’s sticker, such television has to be confiscated.

“Every product in the market has somebody who brought it there. If people fake your brand, you have the responsibility to ensure that those brands are removed from the market. That is why we are here to collaborate with companies whose products are threatened to ensure that they get back their integrity and avoid extreme damage of the brand”.

Speaking on the mutual benefits existing between LG and Nigeria, Odumodu said: “This is a classical case of backward integration; they bring everything from Korea and other places and assembled them here. As they are doing that, Nigerians are building some skills in the processes which are learning process. The process of having a service centre is even more difficult. For somebody to investigate a challenge of a product and then repair it, using a computer in Nigeria, seems to show its skill acquisition. A lot of skills are being transferred. We need to encourage people like that who are doing what they are doing. We now have to set some targets for them. We need to make our local content go beyond labour, whereby we can make materials; that is how we can build our own economy.”

“Looking forward in the next two years, I hope to see backward integration ensuring that Nigerians are able to manufacture in your company, not just to assemble electronics, he emphasised.

The Managing Director, Fouani Nigeria Limited, Mr Mohamed Fouani, who is the major LG electronics distributor in Nigeria, said SON’s visit to their assembly plant, service centre and other key areas of the company, was first of its kind and the company had been producing, meeting up with the standards of the SON.

He said  the factory in Apapa is

The efforts of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) to assist consumers is being hampered by the absence of a policy on consumer protection, CPC’s Director-General, Mrs Ify Umenyi, has said.

This, she told reporters in Lagos, has made it possible for some firms which shortchange Nigerians to go free.

Besides, the agency also suffers from improper structure, the non- take-off grant and lack of budgetary provisions.

These handicaps have made it difficult for Nigerians to feel the impact of the agency as much as they should 13 years after its creation, she said.

She said notwithstanding, the agency’s management has resolved to uplift CPC, with its limited resources.

Umenyi said so far, the agency had been able to establish offices in the country’s six geo-political zones, in Lagos, as well as in the Federal Capital Territory(FCT).

It has also been able to establish six zonal offices, opened market desks, created awareness on the rights and responsibilities of the consumers and also infused the rights of the consumer into primary and junior secondary school curricula.

She said CPC under her dispensation had executed surveillance and enforcement operations in different markets and the prosecution of offenders in Kano, Lagos, Zaria and Kaduna.

Umenyi also listed the resolution of many consumer complaints; conducting of quality tests and analyses, introduction of products and services listing and monitoring programmes, as well as collaboration with sector regulators and national standard bodies as part of the agency’s accomplishments in the recent.

She lamented the cases of trampling on rights of consumers, noting that the consumer is king in the market place.

According to her, a virile protection regime is a catalyst for economic growth and an attraction for foreign investors because it promotes genuine businesses, thereby sustaining existing employment and creating new ones.

She said it also encourages businesses to adopt best practices for efficiency and higher productivity, leads to the provision of a greater choice of products at lower prices, enhances the quality of available products and services, engenders healthy competition needed for a thriving economy while creating consumer confidence, which ultimately drives the economy.

On what could be done to assist the agency to achieve its objectives, Umenyi said one way is the entrenchment of consumer protection as an essential component of the country’s national trade and industrial policy, enactment of robust legislation on competition and consumer protection or the proposed bill on federal competition and consumer protection commission by the National Assembly, as well as the enhanced funding for the effective discharge of the council’s responsibilities.

Umenyi said products bought by consumers must be appropriately labelled as required by the National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).

She advised consumers to demand for receipts after purchase as the these described details of the retailer and the good.

She urged consumers to avail themselves of warranties on products bought.

“The law provides for manufacturer’s warranty and in some cases, retailers’ warranty.

“In the case of the former, the exercise of consumers’ rights under these warranties must necessarily be done through the retailer. “