Pat Utomi, an expert in political economics and a prominent politician, is urging the federal government and other policymakers to allocate their resources toward enhancing Nigeria’s global competitiveness by focusing on the development of small and microindustrial policies.
Utomi emphasises the need for a shift away from import substitution policies that have often fallen short of achieving the country’s global competitiveness goals.
The politician offered this advice while appearing on the Arise Television Morning Show on Monday.
He said, “Let us look at our ability to do just small industrial policies, not the big import substitution, ban this ban that—NO.”
He emphasized the importance of the government identifying sectors where the country has a comparative advantage and directing its resources towards their development.
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“Take those areas where we have latent comparative advantage and add value, unlimited industrial policy over a few years, and become globally competitive and dominant on those value chains,” Utomi added.
He highlighted the hydrocarbon value chain as a strategic asset for the country to invest in, stressing its potential to generate significant foreign exchange inflows.
He explained, “We can see from the hydrocarbon value chain that crude oil may become less and less of a major revenue source. Hydrocarbon processing can still be a major source of revenue in the fertiliser business, etc.
“We can go through all of these and seriously apply ourselves; bring in hungry entrepreneurs—I don’t mean fat cats.”
Utomi encouraged the nation’s leadership to draw inspiration from the iconic South Korean leader, General Park, who transformed the once-third-world country into a global economic powerhouse.
