Aganga Calls for More Production of Local Made Products, Govt Implementation of NIRP
By Prosper Mene
The former minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga has tasked Nigerians to be production-oriented by producing more locally made products and embark on exportation to help strengthen the Naira and grow the economy significantly. He also urged the government to implement the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP), a plan to make the country a top 10 global player in at least 10 key manufacturing categories within the next 5 to 10 years.
Aganga stated this at the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria’s 3rd Adeola Odutola Lecture held recently. The lecture is part of MAN’s 51st Annual General Meeting programme themed “Setting the Agenda for Competitive Manufacturing under the AFCTA: What Nigeria Needs to do” where he was the Guest Speaker.
He noted that the more the country depends on foreign goods for survival, the more it will be a dumping ground for substandard products.
“Nigeria must work towards consuming what it produces and producing what Nigerians consume. Simple. Otherwise, with the AfCFTA in place, Nigeria will be flooded by cheaper and substandard goods. We must not deceive ourselves. Nigeria is the target market for the other African countries,” he stated.
He therefore called for industrialisation and implementation of NIRP to help transform the economy. “There is no better time than now for Nigeria to update and commence the rigorous implementation of its own industrial revolution plan. The NIRP focuses on value addition and identifies sectors where Nigeria can truly win and dominate, based on an assessment of our country’s competitive and comparative advantages. It proposes specific initiatives and interventions to improve productivity and competitiveness in those target sectors and increases production output,” he said.
He also pointed out that the country needs to attract investments into the tech-driven sectors to foster the growth of the digital economy in order to enhance competitiveness and innovation and accelerate the growth of e-commerce, fintech, and technology startups.