In this interview, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo spoke to OLAWUNMI OJO on efforts being made by the federal government to diversify Nigeria’s economic base, ease investment and business operations, and reduce trade barriers in a bid to increase job opportunities for the nation’s teeming population.
These are the guiding inputs that drive our work and we deliver them through our various programmes. We are working to fast track the implementation of the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan . We have programmes to support the growth and access to markets of MSMEs like the National Enterprise Development Program and sector-specific plans and programmes like the sugar and automobile backward integration plans.
The president recently held a 2-day ministerial retreat to evaluate the performance of the ministries. How has the ministry impacted on the average Nigerian? In addition to being there in times of crisis, our everyday operations have an impact that is strongly felt by both the business community and the general public. The trade policy work we do helps improve business processes; we intervene on behalf of businesses to ease investment and business operations and reduce trade barriers in a bid to increase job opportunities and reduce the costs of goods and services.
Exporters now benefit from automated export processes and a reduction in the number of documents and processes required to export successfully. We have also ensured that Apapa port now operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, a move that has significantly reduced congestion and weekend demurrage costs.
My vision for export is one that takes us away from being a supplier of commodities and makes us a strategic supply chain partner for the world’s biggest off-taker nations. Nigeria can strategically position firms to partner with foreign retailers, buyers and end users. International entities should be able to both source from Nigeria and also contract production to centralized production centers.
There are numerous other programmes under ITF and other agencies that offer a wide variety of training that the unemployed can benefit from. Nigeria’s population is exploding, and everyday young people are coming of age and joining the job market. To tackle what you have termed a ‘time-bomb,’ a complete paradigm shift is needed. We are working to reposition Nigeria as a destination that Western countries can outsource their business processes to.
Earlier in the year, you promised that we would soon have a revamped automotive industry policy. In view of AfFCTA and the imminent competition by well-established players like South Africa and Morocco as well as emerging players like Ghana, what is the outlook for Nigeria? Access to Forex has been a major challenge for business owners and I really do sympathise. As a short-term measure, FMITI helps to obtain concessional forex allocations for high-priority business needs. We are working to be able to support manufacturers who wish to import industrial equipment that are not locally available. All businesses can apply to the ministry for help and then support is provided on a case-by-case basis.
The survival of MSMEs is critical to post-covid recovery and we are committed to providing practical support to smaller companies. We have concluded a landmark USD 1 billion syndicated term loan through the Bank of Industry . This intervention provides affordable loans of medium to long-term tenor, alongside moratorium benefit to MSMEs. A great deal of agri-businesses are eligible for this scheme.
The Bank of Industry and Central Bank of Nigeria are providing both financial and technical support to help revive some of the country’s ailing industries. Some factories and industrial spaces are being revived as brownfield sites. There is a huge opportunity here and we have identified a number of business verticals that we are focusing on for a targeted revival programme. These include auto-components, paper products, metal fabrication, construction materials, pharmaceuticals and beverages.
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