The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Okechukwu Enelamah, says the Ministry has developed a five-point agenda to enhance economic growth in the country. He said the five-point agenda includes creating an enabling environment
for business in Nigeria, implementing the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, championing the cause of Nigeria’s small and medium-sized enterprises, attracting long-term domestic and foreign investment, and integrating Nigerian firms into regional and global value chains for processed goods.
He observed that diversifying the economy away from oil is critical; despite contributing only 10% to GDP, the commodity at one point accounted for 90% of foreign exchange earnings and 70% of government revenue. In line with the national diversification efforts, manufacturing and industry are set to play an increasingly important role by granting tax breaks and other export incentives.
According to him, a key Trade Facilitation Agreement signed by Nigeria and over 100 other countries with the World Trade Organisation is expected to provide the nation’s manufacturing industry with a major boost.
Enelamah spoke in an interview with Oxford Business Group, a research and consultancy firm.
While describing the TFA as a milestone, the minister said the agreement should ease the overall cost of doing business in Nigeria. He noted that the importance of the ease of doing business should not be underestimated, and the World Bank’s index for this is critical. And believes that we must work towards improving our performance on global indices. Over the years, Nigeria has slid down the ranking because we did not make an explicit effort to improve our position within it.
A central goal for this administration is to create conditions that facilitate commerce; we want to become a top-100 country on the index within the lifetime of this administration.
He also described issues around ease of doing business as one of the three main obstacles facing manufacturers in the country.
He said, “The biggest challenge is definitely infrastructure, in one form or another. In addition, manufacturers need more access to sustainable, affordable and reliable power – that’s our first priority as a government and as a ministry.
Enelamah said that creating an attractive environment for manufacturers through measures such as tax breaks, export incentives and finance was high on the government’s agenda in line with its broader aim of increasing local production.
He said, “Producers need assurance that if they produce locally, their products will enter the local value chain, and we have created the conditions for that. “We are also working to avoid dumping, as entrepreneurs that are producing high-quality products cannot compete with imports that are cheaper and of lower quality.”
The minister added, “We want to improve the supply of foreign currency through funding programmes that will bring billions of dollars into the economy through Foreign Direct Investment.
