Thursday,
March 22, 2018 7.00PM / Proshare WebTV
Stakeholders at
the March, 2018 breakfast meeting of the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber explored
“Manufacturing as Springbroad for Nigeria’s Growth” in Lagos.
It had as guest
speaker Mr Femi Edun a Special Adviser to the Minister of Industry, Trade and
Investments who gave insight into how Nigeria can reposition its manufacturing
sector.
Mr Edun
asserted that Africa was the last frontier for Manufacturing in the global
market and economic system.
According to
him “Africa accounts for 2% of global trade and Manufacturing was key to
positioning the continent in the global supply chain”.
He noted that
Africa had two pathways to economic growth, which include Manufacturing and
Services, but harped on the need for the region to focus on high-tech
manufacturing.
The Special
Adviser to the Trade Minister stressed the need for Nigeria to address issues
like Power, Infrastructure and Logistics, to create an enabling environment for
the manufacturing sector to thrive.
Speaking on the
Economic Recovery and Growth Plan(ERGP) of the Federal Government, Edun shared
with stakeholders that the plan was giving top priority to the manufacturing
sector.
Giving further insight into
the ERGP, Mr Edun said it had the National Industrial Revolution Plan had the core focus of repositioning Nigeria as a
pre-eminent manufacturing hub.
Mr Edun also outlined a target of 2ml jobs from the ERGP, driven by
manufacturing with a 20% contrbution to the GDP.
Apart from the
NIRP, Edun also intimated the Nigeria-South African Business community of
the plans in place to leverage Special Economic Zones, that will drive
Industrialization.