The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has said that a reassessment of the country’s industrialisation strategy would be a key step to repositioning the manufacturing sector for growth and stability in 2021.
LCCI Director-General, Dr. Muda Yusuf, made this remark while assessing developments in the nation’s manufacturing sector.
According to Yusuf, emphasis should be placed on resource-based industrialisation in the country, which can make Nigeria a competitive economy.
He said local value addition was key in driving industrialisation, which can improve Nigeria’s global competitiveness.
The economist described Nigeria’s manufacturing sector as a highly import-dependent sector that makes it vulnerable to commodity price shocks.
He decried the fact that the sector in almost a decade contributed less than 10 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Nigerian economy.
“A shift from import substitution characterised by foreign exchange support for importing raw materials adversely affected the country’s manufacturing sector,” he said.
Yusuf noted that it was time to ease the FX environment, liberalise FX inflows, reduce illiquidity in the FX market and tackle economic rent-seekers.
He reiterated the need for the government to address critical issues like energy (power), logistics/transportation (roads, bridges, rail), and the ease of doing business.
He also tasked the government with driving policies to support the activities of indigenous manufacturers in Nigeria, considering foreign dominance in the sector.
On the emergence of Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the director general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), he observed that under her leadership, developing countries can receive technical support to strengthen their weak trade institutions.