The Nation Newspaper

Tag: industries

  • ‘Most industries have closed down’

    ‘Most industries have closed down’

    The Director-General of Kaduna Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (KADCCIMA), Mallam Usman Garba Saulawa,speaks on the state of manufacturing sector and concludes that economic activities will not receive a boost unless the problems of poor infrastructure, power outages, and lack of access to finance are addressed. ADEKUNLE YUSUF met him.

    What is your assessment of the state of the manufacturing sector in Kaduna State today?

    The position is still as it was before; nothing has changed. There is no movement in terms of resuscitating the industries. Most of the industries have closed down because of this problem of finance, problem of power outages, and problem of smuggling. Not only smuggling, but patronage of foreign goods generally. For example, Peugeot Automobile, which I can say is the only surviving automobile company in the country, does not get any patronage from government or any other organization that can help it to continue to produce and remain afloat.

    Apart from problems posed by lack of finance, poor electricity supply and smuggling, what other factors make it difficult for investment to thrive in the state?

    Infrastructure is another problem. But the environment itself is harsh on the manufacturing sector because government does not even patronize the local manufacturers. Whether we like it or not, if there is the will from government to encourage patronage of local goods, it will help the manufacturing sector both in the state and all over the country. But a lot of imported things are being patronized by government. A lot of assorted vehicles are being imported from South Korea, South Africa and India, while we have own Peugeot Automobile that is looking for that kind of patronage.

    So it is correct to say most of the companies that were formerly doing well in the state have folded up?

    Yes. Within the textile industry, UNTL is the only company that is doing on and off, on and off in the sense that it is far doing very little compared with what it was doing before now.

    What do you think can help bring back the industrial glory of the region?

    There are various interventions from government. The fund from the BoI should be made available to the manufacturing sector with little bureaucracy because it takes a long process before businesses gain access to these facilities. If the government is finding it difficult to control smuggling, they should encourage patronage of made-in-Nigeria goods and they live by example. Our leaders should live by example. Once those things are done, I am sure there will be increase in production in manufacturing and there will be expansion and employment generation. There will be a lot of things that will be associated with it. The multiplier effect is really going to be very huge. Another thing is this issue of power, even though the government is trying to address that. Unless it is addressed, I am sure it will always be a problem to the sector.

    What of the issue of violence that sometimes rears its ugly head?

    It is an issue, but let me say that there is no society that does not have problems. I quite agree that we have the problem, but there is the issue of militia in the Niger Delta and kidnapping in the Southeast. You can have similar issues in Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Egypt, but what we are saying is that, when you look at the economy of these countries, because they are getting a lot of support and patronage from their government and infrastructure is there, you find out that their economy is doing well. If you look at Indonesia that has thousands of highlands that are habitable; people are there. And yet, look at its economy is booming.

    They made a policy that there is a day that all civil servants must wear their baltic, which helped in boosting production and manufacturing of Baltic by the private sector. This happened because the leaders are leading by example. So, these are some of the things we are saying. I am sure that even the problems we are having in this country have to do with unemployment, frustration and poverty. If we get things right in the manufacturing sector, all these problems will varnish

     

  • Time to revive Abia’s moribund industries

    SIR: Before the creation of Abia State in 1991, outfits like Modern Ceramics Industry Umuahia, Golden Guinea Breweries Umuahia, Aba Textile Mill, Aba Metallurgical Complex, Aba Glass Industry and many others were waxing strong with thousands of workers in their employ. The progressive pace continued even many years after the creation, but unfortunately, this fleet of industries that were the pride of the state and the envy of the neighbouring states started fizzling out in turn as the years progressed

    However, with the exception of Modern Ceramics that received the blessings of the state governor, Theodore Ahamefula Orji with the collaboration of the Roman Catholic Mission, others are still dormant and any hope of their being resuscitated in the near future appears bleak

    The urgent need to revive these outfits cannot be over emphasized as doing so would augment the state source of revenue and at the same time provide employment to the teeming youths as well as reinstating their former workers that are now left to their fate.

    More importantly, it may not go down well in history for the present dispensation if the successive government happens to achieve the feat and possibly take the attendant glory. I therefore appeal to the chief executive of the state to do all within his strides to resuscitate these industries to serve as a lasting legacy to the future generation

    • Nkemakolam Gabriel

    Port Harcourt.

  • Fed Govt committed to growing local industries, says Aganga

    The Federal Government will ensure the growth and development of local industries through local patronage, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has said.

    A statement yesterday in Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant to the Minister on Corporate Communications, Mrs. Yemi Kolapo, said this corrected the interpretation given to the minister’s absence at the Senate hearing on local patronage on Monday.

    The statement said since his assumption of office, Aganga has been pursuing policies and programmes for the growth of the economy through industrialisation and backward integration in support of local industries.

    It reads: “The Local Patronage Bill, when passed into law, will go a long way to protect Nigerian manufacturers, boost capacity utilisation of local industries, increase the productivity and export of Made-in-Nigeria goods, create jobs, generate wealth and save foreign exchange for the country.

    “It is in this regard that the passage of the Local Patronage Bill, which has passed the second reading at the Senate, becomes very important to the ministry, considering the efforts by the ministry to create enough market for local industries to thrive. The ministry’s low quality representation at the hearing, as observed by the Senate, was due to a communication gap in the ministry, which is highly regretted.”

    According to the statement, to fast-track the reorientation of Nigerians to patronise locally made products and also showcase the potential of the country’s local industries, the ministry, through one of its parastatals, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), is working with the private sector to implement its grassroots-based One-LGA-One-Product (OLOP) initiative.

    This, it explained, is to serve as a complementary bottom-up multi-stakeholders development and investment platform for the creation of jobs and generation of wealth in the 774 local governments in Nigeria, besides galvanising and harnessing the potential of the informal sector of the economy.

    Aganga said: “Local patronage is, in fact, one of the enablers of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, which the ministry recently kicked off. The lack of patronage of products produced locally is one of the reasons for the low capacity utilisation and contribution to Gross Domestic Product. We are working with industries to enhance their productivity, improve the quality of their products and ensure that we significantly reduce the importation of substandard products.

    “We are passionate about it because we know that no nation has moved from being a poor to a rich nation by importing raw material without a strong industrial base. We know that we must nurture new industries, supported by government incentives, until they grow strong enough to withstand international competition. These are the reasons we have taken time to develop the NIRP, which will in no time place our industries where they belong – at the forefront of inclusive economic growth and development.

    “As a country, we have a large market, comprising 167 million people. We are the gateway to ECOWAS, which is about 300million people. What this means is that local patronage is very important to us as a country because we must take advantage of our large market to drive our Industrial Revolution Plan.

    “In fact, local patronage is key to the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan because it will help us to increase the productivity of our local companies; reduce foreign exchange spent on importation of goods from other countries and create more jobs for our people.”

    The minister noted that the President had directed the ministry to compile the list of goods produced by Nigerian companies so that there would be no reason for their importation.

    “We are going to do same thing in the states by adopting the same policy. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria is also doing the same thing. Once we complete the process, nobody will be allowed to import those things we produce into the country, especially in areas where we have comparative and competitive advantage,” he explained.