Investment commitments to the Nigerian economy reached some $200 billion between 2016 and 2018, Okey Enelamah, minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, said at the weekend.
He, however, admitted that the ability to convert those promises into tangible investments remains key.
“If you look at the investment commitments that were announced last year for the country at every level, which is tracked by the Nigeria Investment Promotion Council, it is over $90 billion. The year before it was over $70 billion, and the year before then it was over $60 billion,” Enelamah said, speaking on some of the achievements of his ministry within four years.
“This shows us that Nigeria has a potential and is attractive. Now the challenge for us as a country and definitely for the ministry is how much of these will we convert,” he said.
Enelamah said, for instance, the RUYI group, one the largest and most successful Chinese textile and garment companies, committed to invest $2bn and is also partnering with the government on the planned industrial parks.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest economy, still struggles to expand its manufacturing base, which contributes less than 10 percent to economic output, and to create the needed jobs.
“I do believe that we are well on our way but we must commit to the enabling environment because what the investors need is the right environment so that when they put in their investments it will not suffer loss,” he said.
Government hopes to increase manufacturing output to 20 percent of GDP within a few years through industrial parks and Special Economic Zones, a project that has been in the works for a while now, he said.
Giving update, the minister again raised optimism on the Project MINE (Made in Nigeria for Export) which is expected to be driven by the industrial zones projected to start off with some $500 million and targets to raise manufacturing sector’s contribution to GDP to 20 percent while generating over $30 billion annually by 2025.
“We are targeting raising $500m with the government providing 25 percent and we have been working on that. Our plan is to establish world-class industrial parks across the country starting with three.
“We are also looking to revamp two existing parks owned by the government – the Calabar industrial park and the one in Kano where work is ongoing because we have got approvals in the last 10 to 18 months.
“What we are now doing is to attempt to establish three more as a model, one in Lekki Free Trade Zone, for the export of textiles, garments and agro-processing. The other one is in Abia state and is huge, about 9,000 hectares, and there is another one in Funtua in Katsina that will focus on cotton.
“And all these things have received approval and we are now going through the budget process which has been the subject of a lot of media attention recently,” Enelamah said on the industrialisation project, which he calls “the most important initiative of government”.
According to him, the government is doing feasibility studies for the next six, and the whole idea is that this will continue for at least the next 10 years if not longer.
“We believe that if we do this, we will be able to generate over $30 billion of export and this could be an annual export when it reaches maturity. The research also shows we will be able to create 1.5 million direct jobs and for each direct job, you create six or more indirect jobs, so you are potentially looking at over 10 million jobs.
“We also want to move manufacturing contribution to GDP to 20 percent which is what you see in industrialised countries,” he said.
At the press event, Enelamah also hinted that the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA), which many say holds potential to establish a market of 1.2 billion people with a combined economic production of $2.5 trillion, will soon be signed by the President.
Explaining the delay and expectations, the minister noted that stakeholders needed to understand how the country will benefit fully from the project and ensure that all concerns are sorted.
“That work took us over a year and we have completed it, the President then asked for an impact assessment, so he set up a committee chaired by the Chief of Staff and myself to oversee the technical group. We are almost done with it and I am hopeful that the President will sign the agreement once we present the impact assessment which includes remedies and plans of action,” he said.
Enelamah, however, pointed out that the AFCFTA is a very long-term agreement, which must not be rushed into.
“It is not a matter of signing or who signs first but we need to do it well because Nigeria is so strategic in this and by doing it well, we can provide leadership. I am confident that the work we have done in the past 12 months will stand for Nigeria and Africa,” he said.
The minister also emphasised that Nigeria needs to be competitive which means that those factors that encourage substandard made-in-Nigeria goods and encourage dumping into country need to be fixed.
