“In order to achieve effective economic recovery, an enlightened and ideologically autonomous Nigerian state should actively promote economic diversification…” Says Professor Eiedu Iweriebor
Shedding some light of the Nigeria situation, with a focus on the economic k-leggedness as being experienced. “The current campaign for economic diversification,” according to Ehiedu Iweriebor, a professor of history in the Department of Africana and Puerto, “demonstrates the backwardness of Nigeria, officially thought as its primary prescription to move from one exported mineral raw material – crude oil to agricultural raw materials like yam and rice export.”
Writing on some of the way out of the misfortune, the Professor noted that “in order to achieve effective economic recovery, an enlightened and ideologically autonomous Nigerian state, and especially its Ministry of Industry should actively promote economic diversification through mass industrialization and the production of manufactured goods for the home and export markets.”
In his suggestion, “this can best be achieved by proactively identifying catalytic industrial development projects and programmes that will yield a variety of new industrial products.”
The Professor further highlighted that “a good example of this possibility is to promote large, medium and small scale endogenous investors to utilize the intermediate goods from the catalytic plants that will generate a multiplicity of manufactured products for internal use and export within and outside Africa.”
According to his analytical piece titled Nigerian Economic Recovery through Industrialization and Diversification by Public and Private Sector Synergy, Iweriebor submitted that “the best approach for achieving this is to survey the entire national investment environment and identify catalytic, local resource-based projects that have the potential to foster broad-based industrialization and national economic diversification for internal use and export of value added goods.
Itemizing some of the meaningful projects that can help Nigeria out of this sorry state, the Professor listed Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical and Fertilizer complexes under construction in lekki because of their multidimensional resource use.
“Today in Nigeria, the best example of forthcoming critical catalytic projects that can contribute to national industrial development and serious economic diversification are the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, Petrochemical and Fertilizer complexes under construction in Lekki, Lagos.
“These plants will not only supply their basic goods like refined petroleum, petrochemicals and fertilizer; the intermediate products of these plants if recognized and effectively promoted by the Nigerian state and especially the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment can transform Nigeria into a vast center of the production of value-added petrochemical products that will convert Nigeria into an economic power house in the petrochemical sector.
“This can be illustrated by identifying the modern products that can be converted into manufactured products from the intermediate products of the petroleum refinery, petrochemical complex and the fertilizer plants.
“For example, the petroleum refinery in addition to its basic products such as Petrol, Diesel, Jet Fuel, and Kerosene, will also produce Slurry for Carbon Black. In addition to the direct benefits of the beneficiation and utilization of domestic raw materials – crude oil and natural gas, each of these projects has the potential to generate a multiplicity of cognate manufacturing industries that would use their products as feed-stock or intermediate raw materials for production of new products.”
“The petroleum refinery for instance, in addition to its basic products will also produce Slurry which is used in the manufacture of Carbon Black. Carbon Black is used in making of tires and numerous other rubber products including for example belts, hoses, gaskets, bushings, wiper blades, conveyors and others. It is also used in plastics and electronic products, for coatings and for making toners and printing ink.
“In short, just from Carbon black a whole range of critical manufacturing industries can be developed to deepen Nigeria’s manufacturing economy. With the current expansion of computers and printers; toners and printing inks are in very high demand and are all imported into Nigeria. And much of Africa. Thus, carbon black can be used to develop an expansive toner and printing ink industry to serve Nigeria and the vast African market.”
Correspondent: Ridwan A Olayiwola
