FG, Lagos seek investment in made-in-Nigeria goods

The Federal Government and the Lagos State Government on Monday called for investment in the production of local goods and consumption of Made-in-Nigeria products to boost the Small and Medium Enterprises.

They canvassed this in Lagos at the 16th Meeting of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment, hosted by Lagos State Government and organised by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment with the theme ‘Accelerating Diversification to Rebuild Prosperity by Leveraging Industry, Trade and Investment for Shared Prosperity.’

The state Commissioner for Commerce, Cooperatives, Trade and Investment, Folasade Ambrose, said Nigeria had found itself in a situation where there was an urgent need to diversify the country’s economy from over-reliance on oil.

She said that for Nigeria to be economically relevant in the future, there should be more investment in producing local goods and consuming them rather than relying on the importation of goods.

“We have found ourselves at crossroads where the urgent need to diversify our economic base has become more than a policy agenda; it is now an imperative for survival and future relevance in the global economy.

“The lessons from past economic disruptions have reinforced the reality that over-dependence on a single economic resource leaves us vulnerable to external shocks and limits our growth potential,” she said.

The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Nura Rimi, said the global economy was changing and Nigeria must respond with agility by diversifying its economy.

Rimi said, “Manufacturing remains the backbone of industrialisation. By strengthening cluster sector development and removing bottlenecks, we can improve export capacity.

“We must facilitate digital ease of doing business and boost investors’ confidence. We must expand access to finance, which is critical to SMEs. We must create a financial system that supports SMEs.”

An economist and keynote speaker, Abiodun Adesire, said no country survived economically by relying on imported goods.

He noted that for Nigeria’s economy to survive, the manufacturing sector must be revived.

“We should produce what we consume. When there is a problem with the oil sector, there is a problem with our earnings. In Nigeria, we are not producing enough. We must pay serious attention to manufacturing and make Nigeria conducive for the manufacturing sector,” he said.