Time has come for us to move away from exporting raw materials – Okwaje

With few days to the general election, those who would emerge the next leaders of the country have been advised to think of how they would fix the economy by making conversion of raw materials one of top priorities of the incoming administration, so as to make the nation less dependent on import.

Matthew Okwaje, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Participatory Initiative for Peace and Development, a non-governmental organisation, gave the advice in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay in Asaba

“Time has come for us to move away from exporting raw materials. We are simply selling the raw materials away thereby killing our economy. It is time we begin to do conversion,” he said.

According to him, “Conversion behaves like middlemen in the marketing line. Conversion helps to engage many people in terms of employment. Conversion of the materials on to finished products engages more people than production itself, he said.

Though he noted that the country is currently doing conversion, he however said it was inadequate

The current administration led by President Muhammadu Buhari had also put up policies and programmes, including collaborating with the international community to boost the nation’s revenue through export, but Okwaje is of the opinion that export should not be the number one thing to do to boost the economy.

“Export is good but I don’t think export is the number one thing to be considered in this kind of conversion I’m talking about. If we have enough processed, converted goods from raw materials being done here in our country, our dependence on import would be reduced.

Read also: Manufacturers’ confidence in Nigerian economy drops on inflation, FX crisis

“For instance, using stick to produce matches. You want to tell us that we don’t have the wood that we can split to produce matches in this country? We have them and if we don’t have enough, we can grow trees. Instead of doing that, we are going to Asia to bring the product into our country.

‘We have textiles raw materials in this country and we are buying clothes from the British, Europeans and Asians but we have enough population.

“If we produce our raw materials and convert appropriately to the finished products, our population alone can make those people (the producers) to be successful.

“For now, we are carrying the raw materials out of the country and that is not good for us as a country. Let us redirect our focus because we have more than enough consumers for our products. We can’t even meet up our local consumption. So, let us deal with our own place first before we start thinking of export.

“If you go to Europe, a little Scent can buy you food. There is nowhere you can put $5 and you cannot get a good food but in Nigeria, can you get anything with N5. Absolutely no! And that was the same money that was far less than $5. Five dollars were less than Five Naira in the 70s in this same country. So, let’s redefine our focus,” he advised.

On foreign exchange (forex) and manufacturing, he called for a rethink, saying, “Our solution is not outside but we can learn lesson outside. Every country has their own indigenous methods of doing things. What our leaders should do is to look inwards to know what our methods are because when you get your methods indigenously, they are friendly, cheap and easily come by; they are local and easily applied.”

He pointed out that part of the things causing the foreign exchange issue was over-dependence on foreigners.

“Two major things that God gave us, one is oil but the oil is taking away from Nigeria to Overseas to produce and sell to us and we spend so much money to buy. And that’s what is happening in the manufacturing sector.

“We depend on them (the foreign countries) but if we have the products produced here, not only crude but also the refined oil, they would come and buy the products and bring in their dollars, euros, pounds or whatever currency they use but as long as we keep on depending on them for a lot of services and goods, it’s going to be like that. We don’t have control over our economy,” he said.