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  • Atiku insists Nigeria must restructure to get governance right

    Atiku insists Nigeria must restructure to get governance right

    Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar says Nigeria will continue to grapple with the crisis of severe and debilitating socio-economic problems unless it  gets the  structures of the federalism and governance right.

    Abubakar stated this in a paper titled; “The Challenge of Unity, Diversity and National Development: Nigeria at a Crossroads”, which he delivered at the formal public presentation of the Daily Stream newspaper, at the Banquet Hall, Nigeria Air force Conference Centre, Kado, Abuja.

    According to him, the current system, which is characterized by a focus on sharing rather than production, is clearly not conducive to development.

    He noted that virtually all the development indices had not been favourable to Nigeria: massive and pervasive poverty, double-digit inflation, unemployment, dwindling foreign exchange receipts, poor GDP growth rates, high infant and maternal mortality, high levels of illiteracy, and millions of school-age children out of school.

    “For Nigeria to develop – or even make any appreciable progress – we must re-structure Nigeria’s political, administrative and political architecture.

    “That way we can free resources that would otherwise go to unviable ventures and projects, then commit same to areas that directly cater for and benefit the people.”

    He said restructuring would facilitate the emergence of a leaner bureaucracy, enhance efficiency, block wastages and promote more prudent management.

    He said this would make for happier constituent units more committed to the progress and unity of the country and the emergence of a sense of nationhood.

    “However, I am not here just to lament over the sad and unenviable state of affairs in Nigeria.

    “I firmly believe in the viability of the Nigerian Project, I remain unshaken and completely persuaded that we can eventually change the story of Nigeria for good by collectively making Nigeria a productive, prosperous, peaceful and united nation whose people are happy and contented and one that is able to really lead Africa and assume a pride of place in the comity of nations,” he added.

    Abubakar, who narrated his experiences from his recent trip to Malaysia, said he had concluded arrangements to assemble a class of economic experts to brainstorm on the best ways to boost the economies of the three tiers of government in Nigeria.

    The former vice-president, who affirms that Nigeria is truly in crossroads, said “the problem with our federalism is that over the years it has become so skewed in favour of the centre that it impedes our economic development, distorts our politics, weakens our people’s commitment to the country and threatens our existence as a united country”.

    He, therefore, stressed the need to discuss and agree on the kind of federal structure desirable for the country.

    “Reverting to the regions of the past seem untenable because those minority groups which feel that they have been liberated from their bigger, dominant neighbours, are unlikely to accept a return to that older order.

    “We may consider using the existing the geo-political zones as federating units because they will be more viable economically and address some of the minorities’ concerns?

    “If we prefer to keep the current state structure, could we consider introducing a means-test such that a state that is unable to raise a specified percentage of its revenues from internal sources would have to be collapsed into another state?”

    Abubakar, who described himself as more of a businessman than politician, said he would never implement a uniform National Minimum Wage structure across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

    He said under his leadership, state governments in Nigeria would be allowed to pay their workers’ salaries based on their respective financial standing.

     

  • Firm pledges 6m jobs, $5b GDP by 2020

    Here’s a piece of exciting news: Over six million Nigerians will be employed in three years just as the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will increase to $5billion within five years!
    These and many more are some of the goodies being promised by the Executive Vice-President of Hudson Group, Prince Tom Iseghohi.
    Iseghohi, who disclosed this in Lagos at a two-day strategic session organised by the group in partnership with Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and other partners, noted that from a gallop study conducted, it was discovered that Nigeria has the highest entrepreneurial intent in the world which he said is an indication that there are more Nigerian entrepreneurs willing to start a business compared with other countries in the world.
    He also noted that if entrepreneurs are given the needed support to start up a business and they become successful, the country’s GDP would grow tremendously; the per capital income would increase and employment would be addressed.
    He added that in terms of conversion of entrepreneurial intent for successful businesses, Nigeria is one of the lowest in the world.
    Hudson Group boss further explained that the two key reasons responsible for this challenge are as a result of lack of access to funding and access to market especially the international market, stating that the focus of the conference is aimed at creating a platform to solve the issues that face micro-small medium scale enterprises.
    Expatiating, he said: “We have put together a structure that includes international financiers, private sector, government officials and technocrats, to come together to solve this problem which is to formalise micro-small medium enterprises and give it access to technical partners and funding.
    “At the end of the meeting, we would have developed a clear road map that any person interested in creating a business can plug into and tap from. We have decided that we need to be measured by very clear matrix. If we are successfully, we should see SMEs getting more funding than they should have which is easily measurable.
    “If we are successful, SMEs would create six million jobs in the next three years, and there should be a direct traceable impact on the GDP. Nigeria’s GDP can be trillions of dollars, but today, it is less than $500 billion and the best way to drive that is through the SMEs. We have seen the commitment of the government through SMEDAN. SMEDAN and other state governments are partnering us to try out a process which shows that this can be done.”
    In his remark, the SMEDAN Director-General, Dr. Dikko Radda, who was represented by the Director Enterprise Development and Promotion Agency of Nigeria, Dr. Wale Fasanya, stated that the agency has been involved in designing programmes and projects, creating the appropriate platforms to address some of the numerous constraints of Micro Small Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs), adding that the contribution of the sector to export is 7.27 per cent.
    He noted that in the face of recession, the sector is expected to serve as a catalyst for reversing the economic downslide, stressing that the expectation is not certainly misplaced but would be more justifiable if enabling environment is created for the over 37 million new jobs created by the sector.
    Radda explained that as part of efforts to address the challenges faced by MSMEs, they have established a national collateral registry for MSMEs to secure loans; credit information portal to ease up the task of sourcing for information regarding available credits for MSMEs, SME rating initiative, marketing linkages, and others.

  • ‘Nurture MSMEs to boost GDP’

    Robust Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are drivers of growth in any economy, creating employment, value and generation of foreign exchange. In Nigeria, the MSMEs contribute substantially to the economy, hence the need to nurture them for more growth, says the Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) in this report by OKWY IROEGBU-CHIKEZIE.

    The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are essential components of any healthy economy. They contribute about 48.47 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the Director-General, Small & Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Dr. Dikko Umaru Radda, has said.

    The sub-sector represents over 90 percent of enterprises in most developing countries, and contributes between 40-60 per cent of the total output or value added to national economies,  Umaru Radda added.

    Radda, who spoke at an event organised in Lagos by the Enterprise Development Solution Initiative (EDSI) and supported by some state governments, said the sub-sector remained the key driver of our economy, urging the Federal Government to provide an enabling environment for them to thrive.

    He stated that a nurtured and well-structured MSME sub-sector could contribute significantly to employment generation, wealth creation, poverty reduction and sustainable economic growth.

    On the quantum of MSMEs, Umaru Radda, who was represented by the Director of Enterprise, Mr. Wale Fasanya, said as at 2013, the number stood at 37,067,416 distributed as follows, micro-36,994,578, small-68,168, and medium-4,670.

    On creation of jobs in the sector, Umaru Radda stated that the total number of persons employed by the MSME sub-sector as at December, 2013 stood at 59,741,211, representing 84.02 per cent of the total labour force.

    Underscoring the importance of the sector, he stressed that MSMEs’ contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in nominal terms stood at 48.47 percent as at the period under review while its export contribution accounted for 7.27 per cent.

    On the activities of the agency, he said it’s involved in designing programmes and projects, creating appropriate platforms and partnerships for addressing some constraints of MSMEs.

    He, however, advised that, to properly position and develop this all-important sub-sector, all the challenges militating against its optimal performance should be confronted.

    He said: “Though, MSMEs in Nigeria are still largely informal in nature, they have contributed immensely to the national economy. Several common but limiting factors have, however, constrained them over the years. These include poor access to useable funds, capital, difficulties in procuring raw materials, lack of access to relevant business information, difficulties in marketing and distribution of products. Other issues, he stated, include low technological capabilities, high cost of transportation, communication problems, problems caused by cumbersome and costly bureaucratic procedures in getting necessary approvals or licences and policies and regulations that generate market distortions.

    On how the country can come out of recession, he stated that in the face of the present economic recession, the MSMEs are expected to serve as catalyst for reversing the economic downslide. This expectation is certainly not misplaced but would have been more justifiable if an enabling environment can be provided for each of the over 37million MSMEs, he added.

    On the limitations of SMEDAN’s mandate, he said: “As a neonate organisation saddled with the enormous responsibilities of sustainably developing the MSMSE sub-sector, we are working as mandatorily permissible and operationally possible to “knock off” some of these limiters.

    He regretted that funding has always been a major challenge such as in MSMEs start-up/expansion funds, compliance requirements, workspace, equipment, raw materials and personnel, among others.

    The SMEDAN chief observed that adequate funding is also critical for the procurement of resources, human capital, technical, operational, among others, to deliver the Agency’s mandate across the country.

    According to him, the poor synergy among government institutions has also greatly limited the realisation of the good intentions of government for MSMEs.  He said the mandates and responsibilities of agencies of government usually overlap resulting in duplications, wastages and non-realisation of set out objectives.

    He also noted that the inability of MSMEs to demand/request and pay for critical Business Development Services (BDS) is another challenge. BDS are mainly non-financial services and products offered to entrepreneurs at various stages of their business needs. These services are primarily aimed at skills transfer or business advice. According to him, BDS enables MSMEs be competitive as production and products standards are regularly upgraded, adding that the rate of process and equipment obsoleteness is high.

    On the way forward, he canvassed the amendment of SMEDAN Act and the creation of a Credit Information Portal. He said the portal is intended to ease up the task of sourcing for information regarding available credit facilities for MSMEs.

    The Portal provides an information pool that will assist entrepreneurs make informed decisions in getting loans and credits from financial institutions within their locations, he stated.

    Others are a One-Stop-Shop Initiative that will be a platform to minimally reduce the bureaucracy of starting and growing an enterprise in Nigeria.  This, he explained, will allow for the enablers such as National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) to synergise in the delivery of their mandates to the MSMEs.

    Others, he said, include a National Collateral Registry, which will allow MSMEs to secure loans against assets such as machinery, livestock, and inventory and will aid further the financial inclusion plans for the nation’s MSMEs.

    According to him, the Agency is also championing the establishment of an SME rating agency to enhance competitiveness and ease access to funds.  Others are market linkages that will create and grow market database for the real-time and on-time use by MSMEs.

    On access to functional workspace, he said, the Agency has initiated moves to create Small Enterprises Incubation Centre to be located within the existing Industrial Development Centres across the country. Such Centres will address the challenges MSMEs usually have to affordable utilities.

    The SMEDAN chief further canvassed stakeholders’ engagement and town hall meetings, National and State Council on MSMEs, National MSMEs Policy Implementation, among others.

    On equipment linkages, he said: “The drudgery in the production process and low capacity utilisation in some enterprises have discouraged many existing and potential entrepreneurs. One major problem aside the cost of acquisition is the dearth of information as to where the appropriate equipment can be sourced. Towards ameliorating this, SMEDAN is developing a database in partnership with both domestic and foreign equipment manufacturers, fabricators and leasers.”

  • NIMASA ready to increase GDP, says Peterside

    Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Director-GeneralDr. Dakuku Petersidehas said the agency was positioned to contribute substantially to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    Peterside told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that if the potentials of the sector were optimised, they would lead to the growth of the economy.

    “We are looking at the entire gamut of mix that is necessary to unleash our potential in the industry.

    “All I can say is that going forward, maritime is positioned to contribute substantially to our GDP and by extension the growth of our economy,’’ he said.

    Peterside said many countries had optimised advantages of their maritime sub-sector to grow their GDP and it had yielded results and urged Nigeria to replicate same.

    “If you look at the economy of the Philippians, seafarers contribute more than 11 per cent to their GDP.

    “If you look at Bangladesh, it is called the graveyard of ships, in terms of ship breaking, ship recycling; that small sector in the maritime industry contributes substantially to their economy.

    ”Now, if you  look at India, again seafarers contribute substantially to the economy of India. If you look at Korea, ship building contributes to the economy of Korea.

    ”‘If you look at China, the officer cadre that boards vessel or that ply vessels, or that mounts vessels everywhere in the world, most of them are Chinese.

    ”If you look at Singapore, by simply being a trans-shipment hub, it is the mainstay of the economy of Singapore.

    “So, if you look at all these countries, they have optimised advantage of one sub-sector or the other in the maritime sector. Why can’t we replicate same in Nigeria?”

  • Nigeria’s GDP ‘ll grow by 1%, says World Bank

    Nigeria’s GDP ‘ll grow by 1%, says World Bank

    After plunging into its worst recession in over two decades, the World Bank projects that Nigeria will get out of recession, and grow its gross domestic product (GDP) by one per cent this year.

    The global financial institution also said the global economy will accelerate moderately to 2.7 per cent this year.

    “Sub-Saharan African growth is expected to pick up modestly to 2.9 per cent in 2017 as the region continues to adjust to lower commodity prices.

    “Growth in South Africa and oil exporters is expected to be weaker, while growth in economies that are not natural-resource intensive should remain robust.

    “Growth in South Africa is expected to edge up to a 1.1 per cent pace this year. Nigeria is forecast to rebound from recession and grow at a 1 percent pace. Angola is projected to expand at a 1.2 per cent pace,” the global lender said in a statement.

    Fiscal stimulus in major economies—particularly in the United States—could generate faster domestic and global growth than projected, although rising trade protection could have adverse effects.

    Growth in emerging market and developing economies as a whole should pick up to 4.2 per cent this year from 3.4 per cent in the year just ended amid modestly rising commodity prices.

    Nevertheless, the outlook is clouded by uncertainty about policy direction in major economies.

    “After years of disappointing global growth, we are encouraged to see stronger economic prospects on the horizon,” Jim Yong Kim, World Bank Group president said.

    “Now is the time to take advantage of this momentum and increase investments in infrastructure and people. This is vital to accelerating the sustainable and inclusive economic growth required to end extreme poverty.”

    The report analyses the worrisome recent weakening of investment growth in emerging market and developing economies, which account for one-third of global GDP and about three-quarters of the world’s population and the world’s poor.

    Investment growth fell to 3.4 per cent in 2015 from 10 per cent on average and likely declined another half percentage point last year.

  • Telecoms sector adds N1.398tr to GDP in Q3

    Telecoms sector adds N1.398tr to GDP in Q3

    Despite a crushing economic recession, the telecoms sector added nearly N1.4 trillion (1.11 per cent growth in the real term) to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the third quarter (Q3).

    Reports by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) at the weekend, showed that the sector contributed N1.398 trillion, representing 1.11per cent to the GDP. Although this figure is slightly lower than the N1.5 trillion recorded in second quarter, the NBS said the figures reflected the signs of the times.

    The GDP for telecoms as at Q3 of 2016 under Information and Communication contracted 0.95 per cent in Q3 from 1.49 per cent in Q2 and 4.69 per cent in the corresponding period of last year.

    According to the NBS, the Information and Communication Sector contributed 9.9 per cent to nominal GDP in third quarter, which is the same as  the corresponding period last year, but lower than the 12.6 per cent it contributed in the preceding quarter.

    The sector grew by 1.11 per cent in real terms, year on year in Q3 2016 from the recorded rate in the period of 2015, which was 4.16 per cent point lower and lower by 0.25 per cent points when compared with the rate recorded in the second quarter 2016.

    Director of Public Affairs, Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) Tony Ojobo said the International Standard Industrial Classification (ISIC Revision 4.0) was the international reference for the classification of productive activities. Its main purpose is to provide a set of activity categories that can be used for the collection and reporting of statistics.

    According to him, the revision of the ISIC on the gross output is based on the revenue from telephone, telex, facsimile, telegraph and other income from satellite and Internet services.  The intermediate consumption, operational expenditure, minor repairs and maintenance and other expenses of the telecommunication and information services are recorded in the ISIC report.

    The GDP constant basic prices for information and communication under the telecoms and information service as at Q1 last year was N1.3 trillion; Q2 was N1.5trillion; Q3 N1.3trillion while Q4 was N1.6 trillion, which translated to N5.9 trillion for last year.

    According to the NCC, mobile telephone subscription increased from 149 million in Q2 of this year to 153 million as at September and teledensity moved to 109 per cent.

    Telephone density or teledensity is the number of telephone connections for every hundred individuals living within an area. It varies widely across the nations and between urban and rural areas within a country.

    There are five Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) in the country. They are Airtel Nigeria Limited, Etisalat Nigeria, Globacom Nigeria Limited, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited and NATCOM Consortium trading as ntel.

    Fixed/Fixed Wireless Operators include IPNX, 21st Century Nigeria Limited, Glo Wired and MTN Wired in that order that have contributed to the growth of the sector meaningfully.

  • Nigerian economy, not in confusion – Finance Minister

    Nigerian economy, not in confusion – Finance Minister

    The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, on Wednesday declared that the Nigerian economy is not in confusion.

    Noting that the Nigeria economy has been heading to recession in the past six years, she however said that the economy is presently in the right hands.

    She spoke with State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Adeosun was accompanied to the briefing by the Ministers of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh; Mines and Steel Development, Kayode Fayemi; Information, Lai Mohammed and Education, Adamu Adamu.

    Responding to questions on the new economic statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), she said: “It’s the worst possible time for us. Are we confused? Absolutely not. How are we going to get ourselves out of this recession. One, we must make sure that we diversify our economy. There are too many of us to keep on relying on oil.

    “We can see what happened at the output data of the oil and gas sector. What’s happening in the Niger delta has dragged down the GDP of the entire economy. We’re too dependent on oil whereas 87 percent of our GDP is oil. So let us drive those other areas

    “We have to invest in capital projects. No, we are not confused, the time is confusing but we are not confused. We are extremely focused. We know that if we can just bare and get through this difficult period, Nigeria is going to be better for it.

    “If we rely on oil and the price of oil remains low and the quantity of oil remains low, we can’t grow. We have to grow our non-oil economy. I think we that we have a long way to go.

    “We’re not confused and we’re not deceiving ourselves that everything is rosy. It’s not. It’s a difficult time for Nigeria but I think Nigeria is in the right hands and if we can stick with our strategy. We still have some adjustments to make. I think we need to make some adjustments in monetary policy. It’s quite clear we do and we will do that. We’re working on that. We need to try and find a way to support the manufacturing sector better and we will do that.” She added

    She pointed out that the high inflation rate in the country is cost-pushed.

    “And when you have cost-push inflation, it is structural inflation. It is not going to respond to monetary policy tools such as increasing the rate of interest. We have to address the structural causes of the inflation,” she said

    But, she however said that the high rate of inflation has slowed down, which is a good sign for the economy.
    ‎
    ‎According to her, the FEC on Wednesday approved external three-year rolling borrowing plan.

    The plan, she said, will be transmitted to the National Assembly for the approval.

    She said: “Recall when we came in we said our external borrowings strategy will be focused on confessional debts, low cost loans particularly from the multi-lateral agencies‎.”

    The conditions of the borrowing, she said, included concessional loans average interest rates‎ 1.25 per cent, four to seven year moratorium, and 20 years to pay.

    According to her, the loans will come from agencies like the World Bank, African Development Bank, China Exim Bank, and other development agencies like Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA)

    She added: “The sectors in particular that‎ these concessional loans will go to are the strategic sectors of the economy that will help to revive the economy. ‎There is Power. Significant amount of money are located to power projects particularly transmission. This is long term money that will enable us solve some of the problems in that sector.

    “There are projects around polio. There are some money that have been allocated to us to help us do some massive immunization, in order to control this recent outbreak. This is being provided by the World Bank.

    “There is provision for solid minerals and of course I’m very excited about the discovery of nickel. World Bank is supporting the project by the Ministry of Mines and Steel with $150 million to enable them strengthen their capacity in that area.

    “The largest beneficiary of our borrowing is agriculture because its equally strategic and we have programmes by the minister some of which he inherited and is going to restructure and reform and some are new to the ministry.

    “The balance will come from the Eurobond we had indicated.” She said.

    According to her, the FEC sent a strong signal on the need to reach out to the National Assembly to get the borrowing plan approved as soon as possible.

    “Because a lot of this money is for developmental projects. We need this money to be made available for us. Remember these are foreign exchange coming to our country that will help our economy.” She added

    Fayemi disclosed that the Council approved a new roadmap for mining to boost the growth and development of the industry.‎‎

    He said: “What the roadmap seeks to do is to grow the contribution of mining to the GDP on the back of the President’s vision to diversify the economy.  It is to build on the old roadmap of 2012.

    “What distinguishes this roadmap is its determination to build a regulatory agency – an independent regulatory agency in the mining sector. Stakeholders have been insisting that the ministry should not also be the regulator of the industry. ‎

    “We will now have Mining cadastral zonal offices which issue the licenses together with the mining inspecting directorate, mining environment compliance unit as well as the nautical mining units. These are directorate within the ministry but will form part of the independent regulatory agency.

    “The second point that is very critical is the ‎partnership with states. One of the challenges in mining is the tension between the federal government and the states. ‎The Federal Government owns the minerals in the sole but the states government owns the land. ‎

    He stressed that there won’t be any headway without a robust partnership between the two critical components of mining, adding that mining has not been thriving because of the tension between the Federal Government and states.‎‎

    “In this regard, minning cadastrail and zonal offices will also be created in the states to work on this.” He added

    He said that the roadmap is to also change the name of the Ministry from Ministry of Solid Minerals Development ‎to Ministry of Mines and Steel Development in line with glob‎al standard.

    The roadmap, he said, will also
    make it easier for foreign direct investment to come into the country by improving on Nigeria’s geo-sciences data.

    “Mining is about science and if you don’t search you won’t find. Council recognizes that and agreed that a lot of money be put into exploration.

    “The roadmap also focuses on financing the industry, the financial institutions don’t know much about mining and have not invested a lot in it‎.

    “One of the ways the President wants to re-energise the sector is to ensure it gives access to the Natural Resource Fund of the Federation Account which is really meant for agriculture, mining and water resources. But mining has never benefited from the fund. This is similar to ecological fund 1.8 per cent of federation.

    “Another focus is to ensure that value‎ addition is gradually being invested to and reduce the manner in which raw minerals are exported from Nigeria. It is to emphasize beneficiation and processing, so that what we produce is also improved upon before we embark on exportation.

    “We also want to ensure it is utilize here, we have granite, Marbel, bitumen yet we import the bulk of those products into Nigeria because processing does not take place here
    ‎
    Above all, it focuses ‎to increase the contribution of mining to the GDP of the country. Mining has gradually declined from 4.5 per cent of the GDP at independence to 0.33 per cent of the GDP as at today.

    “Given the new focus we can begin to scale that up again. Within the next decade, it’s readily expected that it will begin to climb up to about five per cent of the nation’s GDP.‎

    ‎”The roadmap gives a sense to how the country is paying attention to mining development which is more of an employment generator and wealth creator unlike oil, which recruits fewer people.

    “We want to upscale it and improve the skills of the people, making access to finance available and making technology available to them,” he stated
    ‎‎

  • Why GDP decline may continue, by MAN chief

    Nigeria’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which declined significantly from $568.5 billion in 2014 to $481.07 billion last year, representing 15.3 per cent drop in one year, may continue unless the industrial sector’s low productivity is addressed and dollar injected to support the needs of both the private and public sectors, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has said.

    Speaking during the association’s seventh edition of its Business Luncheon for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in Lagos, its Apapa Branch Chairman, Mr. Babatunde Odunayo, said the greatest challenge facing Nigeria is low productivity of the sector.

    Citing a recent report by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), he said industrial production, which was as low as 6.4 per cent in the second quarter of last year, stood at near zero in the second quarter of the year. He, therefore, said a revitalised industrial sector remained the single most potent solution to the current economic recession in Nigeria.

    With Nigerian manufacturing sector in a time of economic crises: Survival strategies as its theme, the forum provided a platform for CEOs and top management executives of over 300 member-companies of the branch to interact and share experiences on how to enhance the profitability of their manufacturing operations under the current economic challenges.

    Odunayo said the prevailing harsh economic climate, which forced a drop in the nation’s manufacturing sector’s capacity utilisation to below 20 per cent at the end of the second quarter of this year, was partly responsible for the significant decline in the country’s GDP by 15 per cent.

    He attributed the decline principally to scarcity of foreign exchange for raw materials replenishment, and the declining purchasing power of Nigerians, adding that other longstanding negative factors that are yet to be removed for manufacturers to breathe a sigh of relief include lack of supportive infrastructure such as steady and reliable electricity supply and good road network.

    The MAN chief warned that unless the Federal Government takes proactive measures to revitalise industrial production by addressing these issues, the GDP decline may continue. He also said to halt the decline there is need to inject more dollar into the system to support the private and public sector needs.

    He lamented the exchange rate losses by companies for transactions validly made through the CBN, but unconsummated by the apex bank because of inadequate foreign exchange which runs into hundreds of billions of naira.

    “These transactions include approved Form Ms, Letters of Credits (LCs), and approved bills for collections. Government is not accepting responsibility for not consummating these transactions.

  • NITDA, NCC partner to grow GDP

    National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Acting Director-General, Dr Vincent Olatunji, has sought the collaboration of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to develop the information communications technology (ICT) industry to enable it to contribute about 50 per cent to the gross domestic product (GDP).

    Olatunji spoke when the management of the agency visited the NCC Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Prof Umar Dambatta, in Abuja at the weekend.

    He said the visit became imperative in view of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration’s efforts to diversify, the economy, adding that it will allow the two agencies to explore areas of mutual collaboration.

    He said ICT is one of the few options the government has to diversify the economy and build capacity using ICT to improve productivity and service delivery as the realities of the global economy take its toll on the country.

    Olatunji said NITDA is the IT regulatory body that oversees the development of the ICT industry in Nigeria for steady growth; increase the integration of ICTs across all sectors and under-served communities in a manner that supports economic diversification while achieving growth, job and wealth creation.

    He told Dambatta that since its inception, the agency had embarked on a some programmes to drive inclusive development across rural and under-served communities by expanding the reach of IT to these communities.

    Such programmes include increase in access to the knowledge, content and information through ICT tools, creating jobs and wealth among the youths, bridging the digital divide between urban and rural dwellers, youth empowerment, expanding and deepening IT knowledge frontier in the country.

    He said NITDA has identified the challenges of ICT and the need for multi stakeholder partnership to brainstorm and formulate policies to drive the sector.

    He said the agency has two platforms for bringing stakeholders together to brainstorm. These are the Annual eNigeria Conference and the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX) which takes place in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

    He said the agency has set up the Office of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (OIIE) and Office of Nigerian Content in ICT to accelerate the push for an all-encompassing development.

    Responding, Danbatta affirmed the willingness of NCC to collaborate with NITDA to provide efficient services to the public in job creation in ICT as economic cash cow of the country.

    He stressed the need for them to work together to achieve pervasive ICT penetration in line with the mandates of the two agencies.

    Danbatta said NCC’s mandate with that of NITDA, if pursued with vigour, would lead to rapid transformation of the ICT sector, especially now that oil revenues have fallen beyond imagination.

  • Infrastructure key to GDP growth, says BoI

    Infrastructure key to GDP growth, says BoI

    The Bank of Industry (BoI) has said an improvement in infrastructure across the country is capable of leading to double digit growth in the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

    Its acting Managing Director, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, said if the country could record a GDP per capita income of $233.5  with less than 4,000 megawatts (Mw) of electricity, when power supply is improved to about 20,000 Mw, the GDP would hit double digit GDP.

    “It is possible and doable for our GDP to grow at double digits, because in the first half of this decade, Nigeria was among the 10 fastest growing economies in the world with a GDP growing at between five and seven per cent per annum, when the economy was driven by less than 4,000Mw of electricity,” he said.

    Speaking in Lagos during members’ evening with the Institute of Directors (IoD) Nigeria, he said in the 70s, indices clearly showed that Nigeria was ahead of China, saying GDP per capita then stood at $233.5 while China’s was $111.82. He said China is currently ranked second in the world.

    “We were ranked 88th in the world while China was 114th and by 2014, over a period of 40 years, China had overtaken Nigeria. Nigeria is blessed with so many natural resources, but have continued to depend on only one product over the years,” he said.

    He added that the country has everything required to become a great, stating that in the last 56 years, the nation has underperformed while other countries with less resources have done much better because they placed priority on industrialising their economies.

    According to him, Nigeria  has found itself where it was some years ago in 1986 when the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was launched. According to him, Nigeria has been talking about diversification adding that the shocks experienced back in the years is what the nation is currently experiencing.

    “It shows that as a country we have learnt nothing over 30 years and this is why we are suffering from, but I believe we are now poised to make a change,” he said.

    He said if Nigeria can increase its electricity supply to about 20,000Mw per annum, the nation’s GDP will grow at double digits.

    He said the country is still faced with infrastructural challenges and cannot industrialise without an adequate power supply and infrastructural facilities. Olagunju pointed out that businesses spend up to 40 per cent of their operating expenses on alternative power supply to run their businesses.

    He said the mission of the Development Finance Institution (DFI) is to transform the nation’s industrial sector by providing suitable financial services to finance Nigeria’s industrialisation, saying the country should leverage areas where it has comparative advantages to drive its industrialisation efforts.

    He added that Nigeria has no business importing food to feed itself, pointing out that if Nigeria adds value to its natural resources, it should be able to feed Africa and even beyond.

    “We currently import food and one of the parameters for measuring the growth of a country is the extent to which the country is self reliant, but where we are externally dependent to feed ourselves, this means we are very vulnerable,” he said.

    Also speaking at the event, the president and Chairman,  Governing Council, Mr. Samuel Akeju, said the DFI represents the real acting agents of industrialising Nigeria, saying that BoI has continued to reflect the change needed to revolutionise the industrial sector of the economy.

    He said industrialisation is vital to achieve economic growth, adding that the institute identifies with the present administration’s renewed efforts to develop the non-oil sector of the economy through its different initiatives.