Olusegun Aganga, minister of industry, trade and investment, has disclosed that the Federal Government attracted more than $3 billion to Nigeria’s sugar industry under the sugarcane-to-sugar project pursued to drastically reduce huge resources spent annually on sugar imports.
According to the minister, “Nigeria imports 97 per cent of sugar that she consumes,” which he said, is killing the economy and allowed abnormal spending on sugar imports that keeps increasing the pressure on foreign exchange and balance of payment, as “it is high time Nigeria embraced commodity-based industrialisation.”
Speaking at the commissioning of N60 billion integrated steel mill – Standard Metalurgical Company (SMC) in Shagamu, Ogun State, recently, Aganga said the industrial revolution of the Federal Government driven majorly by ministries of industry, trade and investment, agriculture and rural development, and mines and steel development could transform the current situation of Nigerian economy for better.
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He urged government and private investors to collaborate more on the commodity-based industrialisation in order to sustain the industrial revolution blueprint of the Federal Government, and to ensure viability and divergence from oil and imports-dependent economy, saying “the more we rely on oil exports, the poorer we are, and the more we rely on exports of raw- materials, the poorer, we are.”
But, Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State tasked the Federal Government to do more in the area of power generation and transportation as they remain important factors to fast track Nigerian industrial development and the claimed commodity-based industrialisation, appealling, however, to the Federal Government to reconstruct the Sagamu–Ogijo–Ikorodu road because of its economic value to both the nation and the state.
The governor, who was represented by Bimbo Ashiru, the state commissioner for commerce and industry, noted that the steel mill was the 57th of such to be commissioned in the state since the inception of this administration, saying that the establishment of factories in the state would contribute significantly to its socio-economic development.
The governor assured that his administration would continue to give unflinching support to investors by providing incentives like security and infrastructure, which are essential ingredients for economic growth, saying: “We will continue to ensure that Ogun State maintains its leading position in the industrial, commercial and social status among the comity of states in the country.”
