In 2014, Nigeria launched its most comprehensive and ambitious industrial plan with a view to revivifying the economy and making it an industrial hub.
The five-year plan was conceived and prepared by Nigerian experts, the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and several technical partners with the view of building a resilient manufacturing sector that would drive jobs, generate wealth, diversify the economy, substitute imports, boost exports, and broaden the tax base in three to five years.
The expectation was that N5 trillion would be added to manufacturing revenues annually.
“With the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), we have begun to shape a new economic direction for Nigeria; and with strong conviction, an eye on the future, and hard work, we will sustain this journey of transformation and attain the goals of industrialisation,” Olusegun Aganga, Goodluck Jonathan’s outspoken minister of industry, trade and investment, said at the launch of the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) on February 13, 2014.
But this plan will end soon in the shelves of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment.
In the automotive industry, the NIRP specifies the development of auto supplier parks and creation of auto industrial parks, with dedicated ports and berths for assemblers.
The government also pledged to encourage private sector procurement of locally assembled automobiles.
But these are not happening. Patronage for locally assembled vehicles was down to 6,999 in 2017, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as against 555,716 in South Africa; 181,001 in Egypt; 168,913 in Morocco, and 94,408 in Algeria. The attention of government since 2015 has been shifted to raising 35 percent levy and 35 percent duty on imported vehicles, including 30 percent duty on ‘accidented’ vehicles.
“Imported used car segment (Tokunboh) dominates the industry, accounting for 74 percent of all vehicle imports, making Nigeria the largest in the world. Ten percent of imported cars are less than three years old, while 63 percent are over 11 years,” Andrew Nevin, partner and chief economist at PwC Nigeria, said in Lagos in 2018.
Apart from gas industries parks/cities which only exist in the papers, the government in the plan pledged to facilitate the development of eight industrial cities in Nigeria, with a combined land size of 6,000 to 10,000 hectares and 700 to 1,200 megawatts of captive power capacity. This has not happened.
“Industrial cities will be operating hubs (or delineated areas) where manufacturers have the required infrastructure and support to succeed,” the NIRP plan said.
But this is yet to happen.
The government agreed that the textile industry was important and that it would lift the sector by targeting cotton fund and providing support for cotton farmers. This has not happened. But all the manufacturers BusinessDay spoke with didi not agree that this has happened.
“We used to have about 127 textile firms in Nigeria but that has come down to two or three now,” said Grace Adereti, president of the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA) in Lagos at a Made-in-Nigeria stakeholders’ meeting in Lagos in 2018.
The NIRP recognises the importance of housing and construction to industrial development and agreed to build 300 units of housing in each state of Nigeria.
However, five years down the line, the 17 million housing shortage figure is yet to change since 2014. In fact, many more are becoming homeless as the population rises by 2.6 percent annually. The Bureau of Public Service Reform (BPSR) said in 2017 that 108 million Nigerians were technically homeless as of that year.
The government further pledged to establish an appropriate pricing regime for the electricity industry, but this is far from being a reality. Up till now, Nigerians are paying less for electricity, with many unable to procure meters from the electricity distribution companies.
“We are sure that there is a need to review of the industrial plan, assess the level of achievement of the plan and project for the next five years,” Mansur Ahmed, president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), told BusinessDay on the phone.
“There are areas where the plans have not met expectations in terms of today’s realities and we have to review it to make it more realistic for today’s situation,” he further said.
The NIRP further promises to review the Export Expansion Grant to promote export of finished goods. Up till today, the government is yet to re-start the export grant suspended in 2013.
Also, the NIRP promised to link skills development to real jobs to enable Nigerians to develop competence in areas they can put to immediate industrial use. Part of the plan is to develop skills development boards at the national level, and in each of the 36 states. This has not happened.
More than ever before, many graduates leaving Nigeria’s higher institutions are ill-prepared to compete in the 21st century, with many industries seeking talents from other parts of Africa, Europe, Asia and the America.
“We must re-define our education for the future and tailor it towards what the industry of the future requires,” Ibukun Awosika, chairman of the First Bank, said recently at the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja.
Though the plan was prepared by the immediate past government of Goodluck Jonathan, the present administration of Muhammadu Buhari has, on many occasions, pledged to implement it.
“Government is a continuum, and half-hearted implementation only shows how much un-serious we are,” a manufacturer, who did not want his name in print, said.
ODINAKA ANUDU & GBEMI FAMINU
