Nigeria unveils strategy to boost manufacturing revenue

Goodluck Jonathan said the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) and the National Enterprise Development Programme (NIRP), launched this month, were the country’s “most ambitious and comprehensive” initiatives to date.

Jonathan said the goal was to “increase contributions from the manufacturing sector to gross domestic product (GDP) from the present 4% to 10% over the next five years”.

He added: “This will boost the annual revenue earnings of Nigerian manufacturers by up to 5 trillion Nigerian naira ($31 billion) per annum.”

NEDP aims to “re-position” the micro, small and medium enterprises sector (MSME) as the major driver of job creation and economic growth, Jonathan said.

The president said NIRP will focus on areas where Nigeria has “a competitive and comparative advantage, such as agriculture and agro-products, metals and solid minerals, oil and gas, construction and light manufacturing services”.

NIRP will “fast-track industrialisation, accelerate inclusive economic growth and stop the drain on our foreign reserves caused by importing what we can produce locally”, Jonathan added.

A survey conducted in 2010 by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria and the National Bureau of Statistics indicated there are some 17 million MSMEs nationally, employing a total of more than 30 million.

According to the survey, MSMEs contribution to GDP is around 46%. Jonathan noted that the creation of 17 million new jobs was achievable if each MSME employed one additional person.

Recent data published by the African Development Bank Group said unemployment in Nigeria increased from 21% in 2010 to 24% in 2011.

The Nigeria Economic Report, published by the World Bank in May 2013, said the country’s short term macroeconomic outlook looked “generally strong, with the likelihood of higher growth, lower inflation, and reserve accumulation”.

However, the report argued that while the federalist system had the potential to support Nigeria’s take-off into “rapid diversified growth and job creation”, federal and state governments needed to “improve cooperation and policy coordination” in areas such as macroeconomic management and the realisation of national standards in public financial management and disclosure.