The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation has said the absence of critical infrastructure like power is contributing to the non-competitiveness of goods produced in Nigeria.
UNIDO, which is a specialised UN agency that assists countries in economic and industrial development, said this could make imported products cheaper, adding that the situation was affecting the economy negatively.
The Head, UNIDO Investment and Technology Promotion Office, Nigeria, Ms Abimbola Olufore, stated this at a webinar organised by Oando and supported by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group and Ventures Africa.
The event with the theme, ‘Paying the price: The cost-of-living crisis’, had the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Youth Empowerment and Job Creation, Mr Afolabi Imokhuede, and the Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PwC, Mr Taiwo Oyedele, in attendance.
According to Olufore, who spoke on the role of manufacturing in an economy, manufacturing aids the economic development of any country and is supposed to be a 24-hour activity.
“But because it sits heavily on quality infrastructure that is lacking or very expensive in Nigeria, the opportunity gets eroded.
“If you look at countries like Botswana and Chile, which used to be very poor, they are now out of the league and are doing very well, due to manufacturing. It relies on very important tenets like quality infrastructure, like power and road, and when you are talking about manufacturing, it needs access to market and affordability.
“When you lack infrastructure and people have to create infrastructure as a typical manufacturer in Nigeria does, based on the current state of things, what you are manufacturing is almost not affordable because the cost of producing the product and the cost of importing that product from China are miles apart and these are the realities that are crippling us.
“We have a lot of youths that are unemployed because some of our industries are operating from 9am to 5pm. If you go to Oba Akran (an industrial area in Lagos), it’s quiet at night, whereas industrial parks don’t sleep, but this is what happens here.”
She also said the age-long reliance on white-collar jobs had downplayed the importance of acquiring technical and vocational skills that are the fulcrum of economies in other parts of the world, and leading to sourcing for skills from abroad.
“Nigerians need to fix Nigeria and we have to be intentional and transit from developing documents to implementation, which will unlock our potential,” she noted.
Asked how Nigerians could survive the hard times, she asked people to review their spending habits, empower their spouses and adult children so as to have multiple sources of income.
“You need to realise that for you to make ends meet, you have to embrace opportunities and deliberately generate income and if that is not coming naturally from the structure of the system we live in, you have to create your own structure that is sustainable. Don’t be stuck with one income.”
Speaking on the issue, Imokhuede said the social intervention programmes of the government had become necessary to help people with consumption while efforts were being made to address structural and infrastructural challenges that could help them to create wealth.
He called on Nigerians to engage in legitimate businesses to augment their income. “If people look around, anything that frustrates them is likely frustrating about 100 other people and so, people should see how they can create an opportunity out of it,” he said.
He added, “I cannot but agree that we are in survival mode. Our people struggled before COVID-19 and the pandemic has increased it.
“Our population growth far outweighs our economic growth, and because we are not looking at that, due to religious and cultural norms, that could make the problem to remain with us for a bit. Also, the number of those getting out of school far outweighs the number of jobs or opportunities available. That impacts our unemployment numbers.”
He advised that people should learn marketable skills to match global competitiveness, have multiple streams of income and be prudent in their spending.
