MAN @50: Stakeholders mull panacea for Industrialization, Sustainable Development Goals
EXCLUSIVE
As the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (MAN) celebrates its 50th anniversary; one of the events lined up is a high level conversation on industrialization and sustainable development with the theme: Industrialization: A Pathway to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) with the distinguished guest and lead speaker as Ms Amina J. Mohammed, the Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation of Nigeria, Mr Boss Mustapha, as Special Guest of Honour as well as panelists led by the moderator, Professor Tunji Olaopa, Directing Staff, National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru. By and large there was consensus from the panelists that Nigeria is yet to make appreciable progress in the quest for industrialization, the Editor Gentechnews, Tony Nwakaegho, writes .
In furtherance to the celebration of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (MAN) 50th Anniversary, the Association’s program of event on a high level conversation on industrialization and sustainable development with the theme: Industrialization: A Pathway to Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, (SDGs) saw the gathering of relevant stakeholders in academia, industry, top government officials, women in manufacturing, aspiring entrepreneurs, financial institutions, development partners and non state actors with interest in industrialization.
The United Nation, (UN) Deputy Secretary General, Ms Amina Mohammed who delivered her address virtually commended the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, on its 50th Anniversary, in job creation through the advocacy and result oriented services it provides to its members.
Mohammed urged MAN to engage with the UN Global Compact, in the context of this new Africa strategy, adding that the UN Global Compact is a special initiative of the UN Secretary General dedicated to promoting sustainable business.
“The Global Compact has a local network in nature, which will grow in the coming years. Additionally, as part of the Global Compact New Africa strategy, a hub will be established in Abuja, to support business across the continent in our joint efforts to achieve the SDGs,” she said.
Mohammed lamented that COVID-19 has derailed progress across all 17 SDGs, adding that in 2020, 124 million people will be pushed back into poverty and some 255 million jobs will be lost worldwide.
She posited that a sustainable recovery must be guided by the SDGs, noting that the United Nations stands ready to support Nigeria in harnessing industry, and making progress towards the goals.
In her words: “I encouraged MAN to engage with the Global Compact, in the context of this new Africa strategy. So business can effectively help move the needle of a sustainable recovery for Nigeria, and the continent.
“Nigeria also stands to benefit greatly from the African continental free trade area, which will improve the quality of goods and services, and increase nature’s competitiveness in national and international markets.
”MAN support will be crucial in ensuring nature takes profit from the Fourth Industrial Revolution by accelerating digital expansion and promoting green industries, while participating in the third Industrial Development decade for Africa.
“Finally to consume responsibly, we also need to promote sustainable industrial production through the circular economy and efficient use of resources to reach zero waste as called for by SDG seven, nine and 12 to achieve the 2030 agenda.”
The Director General of MAN, Mr Segun Kadiri, while introducing the concept of the conversation and the profiles of the Guest Speakers and Panelists, stated that industrialization is a catalyst for economic growth and development and most developed economies today achieved enduring growth and development through advanced manufacturing capability.
Kadiri said that it is generally agreed that no country can attain the statue of being developed without a virile manufacturing base, noting that the policy disposition and implementation strategies of successive Nigerian government remain to create more employment opportunities scale up the production of consumer goods for the teeming population and generate wealth for the nation.
The DG MAN disclosed however that the rate of industrialization in Nigeria has been slow and unimpressive, stressing that this is evident by low industrial capacity utilization, modest manufacturing activities and constraint export of manufactured products within and outside the country.
“For instance, Nigeria’s share of world output of 0.41% which rank 29 in the world is very small considering its size and structure when compared with 3.1% of India, 3.0% recorded by South Korea and of course incomparable with 28.7% of China.
This scenario, he said, is worrisome and requires concerted efforts of all stakeholders to change the narrative.
He declared the even though they have identified the imperative for industrialized Nigeria to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), there is the need to ascertain what must be done to reset industrialization and align it with the expectation of the SDGs, which is the UN’s global call to end poverty, save the planet, and ensure peace and prosperity in the world.
He recalled that in 2015, the UN set the 2030 agenda for SDGs which recognised that ending poverty requires strategic and improved health and education, reduction in inequality and swelling economic growth while managing climate change and working to preserve the earth and forest.
“The SDG centre for Africa and the sustainable development solution network in the 2020 edition of the Africa SDG index and the dashboard report shows that the SDG 3 which is good health and well being, SDG 9 industry innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 16, Peace, justice and strong institutions are the greatest challenge facing Africa.
“Clearly, industrialization is directly link to SDGs 9 which incidentally poises severe to Africa. In turn, SDG9 which is industry, innovation and infrastructure is critical and related to SDG 1 which is no poverty, SDG 2 which is zero hunger, SDG 3 which good health and wellbeing, SDG 8 which is decent work and economic growth, SDG 12 which is responsible consumption and production as well as SDG 17 which is partnership,” he said.
He opined that industrialization has the capacity to address a very good number of SDGs for Africa just as it did for the industrialized nations.
He simply defined Industrialization as the development of industries or manufacturing companies in a country or region on a wide scale.
In his words: “It could be seen as the forerunner of economic diversification, speeding different productive activities through research and innovation. Globally, evidence has shown that industrialization drives economic growth and development and causes positive change in countries faced with abject poverty challenge. It also shows a linear relationship exist between industrialization, economic growth, job creation, high standard of living ,longevity, world class state and peace. Throughout the discovery and development of natural environment, deliberate industrialization policy instruments hitherto in poor countries are opened to sustain development that lifted their citizens out of poverty.”
He lamented that unfortunately, Nigeria has not made appreciable progress in industrialization and this has negatively impacted on the attainment of the 17 SDGs of the UN.
Accordingly, he said, the conversation which is open to the public especially relevant stakeholders in academia, industry, top government officials, women in manufacturing, aspiring entrepreneurs, financial institutions, development partners and non state actors with interest in industrialization is a veritable platform for stakeholders in public and private sector to observe the following: To review the progress made thus far and identify where the continent missed it and suggest ways for recovery; appraise the current state of SDG implementation in Nigeria with a view to identifying any challenges, weakness and strength.
One of the panelists, Amb. Jean Bankole who is the Regional Director office Hub UNIDO Rep to ECOWAS was prompted by the moderator on the position of UNIDO on the SDGs in Nigeria.
Bankole stated that Nigeria is the leading economy in Africa, and there is no country developed worldwide without going through accelerated industrial development.
He pointed out that SDG 9 which is focusing on industry, innovation and infrastructure is quite interlinked with all the SDGs, adding that there are a number of indicators which will help to see how we are moving ahead about implementation of the SDG.
He said that there are quite nine indicators, but will focus on two or three of them.
Bankole said “First how we move ahead when it come to do about Nigeria infrastructure? I want to say that Nigeria is doing well in terms of infrastructure development since I arrived here in 2017 I saw a lot of work in terms of road construction , rail construction, Airport development and I want to encourage the government to move ahead in doing its work and involving the manufacturers in the country. A country cannot consume what it cannot produce and how can we move ahead in building the resilient condition of our infrastructure if we do not involve our private sector, there is no way we can sustain it.
“If you see what is going on in other countries, in China, in America, in India and other countries, you can see in the faces that the citizen of the country becomes the ambassador of our countries, including in manufacturing sector.”
He stated that the second indicator is whether the manufacturing sector is adding value to the economy?
“The second may be indicator on which I can come which is more importantly get to the industry is manufacturing are devalued. From the time Nigeria was engaged in economic diversification the market Value Added (MVA) is quite high and in 2015 we saw that too that it was a decline like 9.2 % contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When you compare that value with that of South Africa which is about 12% with the value of Ghana we see that we need to put in a lot of efforts to increase the MVA contribution to the economy,” he said.
The other one, he said, is the support to the Micro, Small Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) and asked what the contribution to that sector is?
Bankole also highlighted that the government need a lot of effort particularly in the area of COVID to formulate the number of SMEs to provide them access to credit.
He hinted that access to affordable energy is also absolutely critical because there is no way we can move ahead to support industrialization if we don’t really pay attention to access to affordable energy, particularly renewable energy in terms of efficiency, cleaner energy.
“When it comes to production at the end of the day we have to see how we can help the small farmers to access affordable energy. After visiting almost 26 states in Nigeria many of the companies which are failing are necessarily linked through the factor of production, and energy because they don’t have the capacity for energy and poor access to energy,” he revealed.
He mentioned another indicator, which is innovation, stressing that when it comes to innovation, research and development is key, particularly in the context of the conditions which is being raised by her Excellency, Amina Mohammed.
He argued that we cannot move ahead if we are not digitalized; hence we have to move about how we can focus on science and technology; how we can support our research institutes with innovative tools which can really help to address a number of challenges in the manufacturing sector in the country.
Finally, he said when it comes to industrialization, we cannot move ahead if we don’t think bigger, because the industrialization requires massive investment.
In his words: “Look at the example of China; they decided to help the SMEs as a state matter, so if we don’t take it as a state matter we cannot move ahead. How do we carry out our mission in terms of industrialization outside Nigeria? When we see a number of factors coming from India and China and living in the bush, they become the ambassadors of their countries in Nigeria. We should try to set up manufacturing ambassadors into the countries in Africa and beyond Africa. I see this as a strategy whenever they come we don’t see many investors from Nigeria there simply because they don’t speak French.
“Chinese are coming here, they don’t speak French or English and you find that they are making good business. Let us adapt to a new condition, let us open our boarders to see how we can expand our economy to move ahead.”
For industrialization to contribute to create more jobs particularly to young people, he said, it is a possibility to bring the idea into concrete solution.
Bankole revealed that they are making effort with the support of the state and federal government to put in place what is called Starter Initiative for young people in the country, adding that it is to give them the place to develop their novelty idea, digital idea, e-commerce to move SMEs and business in the country.
The objective of sharing the benefit of developers is to the vulnerable in society and critically with respect to the SDG 9 as an interlinks to sustainable industrialization, and to switch our policy to empower people to make eco- friendly changes in their daily lives.
Bankole went further to explain that there is a need to put our production model in future and to see our eco system banner around our modus operandi.
He affirmed that “The main reason some developing countries will move to digitalization is that technology and innovation will help to address a number of issues. Let me just share two of the importance of technology. I think technology help us to set up the capacity of the manufacturers in discovering a number of tools which can help to better the business. Technology is linked to innovation so how can we move ahead if we don’t support enough the technology?
“Technology is very dynamic and there is the need for us to focus on tech development to come with the new tools which can help the manufacturers better to discover the appropriate tools to discover a number of issues linking among others to cost effective, factors of production for example energy.
“There is also the issue of the fourth industrial revolution, how we manage the waste. Nigeria is about 200 million now by 2050 the country is going to reach almost 400 million people. What it means is that you are going to increase the waste- the pollution. So if we cannot anticipate by putting in place an innovative technology to address the issue of waste we are going to face a lot of problem. There is a lot of pollution on the water. So we need to put in place a clear innovative technology that will help in terms of production. “Secondly, putting in place technology will help the business to save money because if you integrate a soft ware managing the efficiency of the energy it will help you to save money. If you cannot put in place a modern innovative technology you cannot move ahead with your company. It will help the workers to perform very well and even faster because there are a number of activities which a number of software will help them to address. “Technology is not only important in the production chain but also in the business development because the business development for the CEO will help him to discover a number of innovative tools to help him to take faster decisions because you can have access to data and you can test how other companies are working. It will help also the communication with the manufacturers across the country. For example during the lockdown in Nigeria and worldwide we communicated through innovative technology, which is a Zoom, a virtual communication to conference and so on.”
He argued that we have to change the narrative with the fourth industrial revolution to change our modus operandi to clean production with global technology which will help to address a number of issues from pollution to the waste management globally.
Accordingly, he said “There is resource efficient and clean production which stakeholders have to integrate in their production chain. This is a very good opportunity to benchmark with the countries on which type of policies we should put in place to move ahead in the digitalization process to support our manufacturers in the country. Even if this lead to international, there is a need for public and private partnership and for the state to understand that this sector has to be a matter of state to support the growth of our economy and industrialization will be key to support the investigation not only as a whole and entire industry but also for agriculture, the agro industry business and the interlink basic industry which is the MSMEs which will help to set up the basic type of industry.
He harped on the need for inclusiveness to involve the young people who have a lot of ideas in Africa and not to go copy the China but pay attention to our own land and people.
Government, he said, need to support the number of researchers in our universities with a number of innovative approach and tools as well as to seek how much the capital contribution to the sector because we are at the competitive age, quantitatively and qualitatively in the local and international market.
In his words: “We want the production chain of our manufacturers to reach the minimum quality standard for Nigerians to consume it even if it produced in Nigeria.”
On her part, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Sustainable Development Goal, Princess Victoria Orelope-Adefulure, who was represented by the Special Advisor Technical, Dr Bala Yunusa, recalled that once the world leaders adopted the 2030 agenda in September 2015, Nigeria acted very quickly in the overall implementation of the SDGs.
Orelope-Adefulure said that happened with the establishment of the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President with fourfold mandate, which is all strategic planning, coordination and guidance that have representation, advocacy and partnership building, lack of resource mobilization and management, and that of monitoring, evaluation and report.
She further stated that “Now, Nigeria has a huge implementation context for the 2030 agenda, the SDGs approximately 200 million Nigerians 923,000 square kilometers, divided into 36 states and 774 local government that is by no means a huge implementation context, discounting the 1000 kilometers of coastal lines, and this 17 SDGs were universal call to action to end extreme poverty.
“So we’ve got the planet and ensure people enjoy peace and prosperity by the year 2030. And there are three dimensions to that the economic, social, and environmental.
“Now, with this huge context, the office does not attempt to implement the SDGs, but to coordinate the implementation of the SDGs. It is the federal ministries department and agencies of government at the national level, and the 36 states, you know, under corresponding ministries that are supposed to drive the implementation of the SDGs, for example, SDG 9,8,11, 12 arguably fall within the mandate of the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment.
“So it is for us to work closely with the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment to operationalize these relevant SDGs, the same with the Ministry of Environment, the same with Health and Education,” she added.
She maintained that these sustainable development goals are 169 targets, 238 performance indicators, adding that these SDGs are interrelated, interconnected and often indivisible.
The SSA to the President on Sustainable Development Goal stated “ So to make progress on SDG 1 on low poverty and SDG2 on zero hunger, it must necessarily make progress on SDG 8 on decent jobs and economic growth, and obviously, on industry, infrastructure, innovation and SDG 9 that we are talking about. So this interrelationship between the targets, the goals and the indicators and obviously we know the relationship between cost security and national security.
“So SDG 16 comes to this equation, and therefore, we work closely with all the Federal Ministries and Departments to first ensure that inter sectoral policies and plans of these ministries and these SDGs are integrated in our ministries, because unlike the Millennium Development Goals, (MDG) when Nigeria negotiated $1 billion dollars annually from the Paris Club, to be invested into MDG area, the SDG does not have that resource. And we need to look outside the public sector to finance the implementation of the SDGs.
“The COVID estimate, a year estimate approximately $85 billion to sufficiently implement the SDGs in Nigeria, and that resources cannot come from the public sector. In fact, if we take the 2020 budget of the Federation, it’s about 20 trillion. The Federal component was about 10.8. And the 36 states combined about 9.2 trillion. So, 20 trillion is grossly inadequate to finance the implementation of the SDGs.
“And therefore the role of organized private sector should be in mobilizing not only expertise that they have, but also implemental resources, moving away from the idea of funding the development goals.
“Now we are working on the integrated National Financing framework, mapping out the entire financing ecosystem to understand where the resources will come from, to finance the implementation of the SDGs. So in the last five years, we taught the first phase of implementation, it was basically to build on existing foundation set up the institutional framework that will guarantee effective implementation, and that we have done by first realigning our national statistical system with the requirements and indicators of SDGs, so that the National Bureau of Statistics on annual basis, will be able to track progress on this 230 key performance indicators.
“Now, at the national level, we have achieved integration of the SDGs into our national development plan, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) that just ended 2020, between 2017 to 2020, when we found ourselves in an economic recession, and we needed to plug the ERGP, we mentioned the three dimension of the SDGs into that plan, in touch the cardinal objective, that of restoring economic growth, investing in people and building a globally competitive economy.
“Now that the ERGP has ended last year, the medium term national development plan 2021 to 2025, has adequately integrated all the 17 SDGs into the cardinal objective of the plan. And the plan will soon be launched by His Excellency, the president of the Federal Republic. “
She announced that at the sub national level, they are working with the state to ensure that they mainstream or integrate the SDGs into their own development plan, based on their local development priorities, adding that they have succeeded in Gombe, where they have the 10 years SDG base development plan, launched this year.
“Conclusively, on the SDG 9 what we are talking about today is the Nigeria national voluntary review of 2020. One of the key finding was that SDG 8 will likely be struggling as a country to achieve SDG 8 on decent jobs and economic growth until our growth happen away from oil and gas.
“That means we have to have inclusive growth that which provides equal opportunity for all the segments of the society, especially the poor and the vulnerable members of the society. And the only way to do that is through the Micro Small and Medium Enterprises and by extension the manufacturing sub sector of the economy, the agriculture and Agro business. Until the growth is away from oil and gas, changing the structure of the Nigerian economy we will struggle on these key three SDGs especially SDG 8 and 9 that provide the altruistic role to achieving the other SDGs,” the SSA emphasized.
Shading more light on the high-level conversation is Dr Muhtari Aminu-Kano, DG/CEO Nigerian Conservation Foundation, who agreed with the guest speaker that the Sustainable Development Goals really rest on three pillars.
Aminu-Kano said “And I think there is now a growing recognition and momentum and pressure, both globally and nationally, to recognize that businesses such as yours, and those of your members who come here are actually sitting on a three legged stool. And the bottom line, and the economic aspect is very important. But it used to be almost the only thing overshadow the other legs of the stool, but I think is a great recognition of the importance of balancing that stool. And looking at the other two legs, that is the social aspect and the environmental aspects.”
He opined that the current momentum towards sustainability, the higher recognition that the world needs to address two major evils, which is climate change, and the loss of nature and biodiversity.
He said “I think that momentum and your recognition is very important. And to your individual organizations, I think those environmental problems, these two sides of the same coin, actually present risks of one side, but also present a lot of opportunities on other.
“I think at the beginning, the Director General of MAN mentioned that in terms of support to the manufacturing center, the manufacturing sub sector of the economy that Nigeria is not doing too well.
“So your question to me about how we manage natural resources. Unfortunately, the answer is also gloomy. We manage it very badly. You can look at all aspects you can look at our forests.
“Nigeria is one of the top five fastest deforestation countries in the world. That’s where we sit. And at some stage, we were even the highest we are losing forests at the rate of about 350,000 to 400,000 hectares every single year. No wonder we have desertification, we have soil erosion, we have flooding, and we have all the maladies that come with that. And some manufacturing sub sectors industries contribute to that.
“The major driver for loss of forest is agriculture. But there is also logging both legally and illegally. And so, some agro allied industries make a contribution. And some industries in the food and beverage sector also make a contribution to that. Look at another aspect of the environment, our waters, waters are poorly managed, and lot of them polluted. A lot of them have plastics of all types emanating from industry.
“Ultimately, in them that glut it and are causing not just the quality of the waters in the rivers, streams and things, but also blocking drainages and again causing flooding. Look at our soils as well. Some of our soils are degraded as a result of push from agriculture. And again with contribution from agro allied industries, look at our air, we have heavy pollution in our air.
“And some of the contributions also come from industries in terms of either the direct processes of what they emit from their own manufacturing process, or from energy, the use of diesel generators, which again, unfortunately, Nigeria is very, very notorious for. So I’m not happy that I’m a prophet of gloom and doom this morning. But you asked me the question, and I have the answer,” said Aminu-Kano.
He however noted that these present both risks and opportunities, and companies that recognize that grapple with that and run with it as really leaders in this kind of thing and they turn bad news into good news.
He affirmed that there is hope because there are some of the companies who are really, really taking sustainability seriously since they are acting and putting their resources where their mouth is actually addressing these.
“And I think this will pay off for them in the end, because they are exploiting some of the opportunities and making the right moves,” DG/CEO Nigerian Conservation Foundation said.
On his part, Mr Carl Cruz , Managing Director Unilever West Africa who joined the panel virtually stated that the topic is indeed timely as we fully understand that we are not in the league of the world’s first emitters, and we have an economy that is growing and actually needs enhanced energy supply to fuel productivity.
Cruz said it is also a reality that the disruptive consequences of global warming affected everyone, while 2020 was an intensive volatile year the world did not end with Coronavirus condemning cost millions of lives worldwide and will continue to do so probably and ensuring lockdowns catalyze the most severe economic contraction since perhaps the Great Depression.
Managing Director Unilever West Africa said “Last week at the Nigeria economic summit group, the summit the event on the circular economy where I gave a keynote address, I noted the need for urgent actions, but to have the concept of Earth overshoot day, which provides us with data on the effective or ineffective utilization of the world’s ecological resources.
“Data gathered shows that globally and in Nigeria, we are running on an ecological deficit, interestingly, stingily the data for 2020 reflects the drop in the resource used in the first half of the year, mainly due to the pandemic induced lockdowns showing us that the world stock of natural assets of geology, soil, air, water, and all living things can be sustainable if we manage them well. “
He disclosed that organizations including the manufacturing sector are looking beyond the challenges then embracing an eco-friendly business model for the sustainable use of our natural resources, stressing that a growing number of manufacturers are realizing substantial financial and environmental benefits from sustainable business practices.
Cruz further stated “As an industry we have collaborative efforts for develop, developing, for instance, among all of the players, the reduction, reuse, and recycling of plastics, more businesses are reducing their carbon footprint and using solar energy in various parts of their operations.
“At Unilever, we understand the corporate organizations must be a part of the solution to these issues. It is no surprise therefore; the eco- friendly manufacturing is gaining ground and momentum around the world. It is a sure way to protect the planet from exploitation and help conserve natural resources.
”As a large consumer goods company, Unilever tries to influence how this can play out positively. We recognize that we urgently need to bridge the divide to a fairer, more socially inclusive world, where we all live in, rather than at the expense of nature and the environment.
“In view of this, Unilever have made far reaching public commitments for climate action, protecting and regenerating nature. And of course, creating a waste to the world. Some of our commitments cut across the following. Having net zero emissions from our products from the point of sourcing to the point of sale, collecting and processing, more plastics for recycle, reuse, maintaining a zero waste to landfill in all of our factories, and implementing deforestation initiatives across our supply chain. The industry strongly believes that it is imperative to innovate and transit into new eco friendly models.”
He pointed out that one cannot decouple business from sustainability, because it is simply a lot better.
Consequently, Cruz said that there is a clear need for businesses to make a positive social impact in the community they are operating while at the same time making financial sense with stakeholders, otherwise they will run out of planet and the soil in the very near future.
The Special Guest of Honour and Secretary to the Federal Government, Boss Mustapha, who was represented by Mr David Adejo Andrew, Permanent Secretary Political &Economic Affairs, took his turn to explain the nitty-gritty on the performance of the SDGs and industrialization.
Boss Mustapha disclosed that since its establishment in May 1971, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has been having interface between the public and private sectors as well as non- state actors in the area of manufacturing and making sure there is effective communications and consultations to protect the interest of the manufacturers as well as ensure that sector contribute to the development of the country.
While setting the tune on industrialization, he hinted that when Nigeria got her independence in 1960, the plan for her industrialization was put in place.
“People see Ajaokuta as started by Shehu Shagari, but Tafawa Balewa, set and started the conversation for Ajaokuta to kick start our industrialization process. It could not complete and could not go far before the coup. When Shagari came, being part of that administration, he picked it up till where we were in spite of the international conspiracy supported by the local.
“So it’s painful for us that at 61 years we are still where we are. So it is good that this conversation is coming up I definitely want to use this opportunity to congratulate Engineer Matsu Ahmed and his team for organizing this conversation now…I’m also pleased to note that you get no other person to be the lead presenter than the UN Deputy Secretary General,” the SFG said.
According to him, “This forum has therefore presented an opportunity for us to take a look at the industrialization issues in the country, ideas have been given, problems have been identified, energy is a problem, incentives are needed, and excessive taxes will be needed to be addressed.
“These are things that we need to look at, because it’s going to help us as a nation to begin to see our development not only in terms of what is our GDP rates, but going across the whole human development index spectrum.”
He then began to dissect the hiccups in the SDGs and said: “We know it’s been said the SDGs has about 169 targets about 271 indicators, but depends on the way you look at it is about 247 or 231 because some of the indicators are duplicated and relevant to different about three major groups. But important thing is that all of them point to the fact that the lives of people across the world need to be improved. These goals recognize that ending poverty requires strategies and innovation that will reduce inequality, economic growth, while managing climate change, and working to preserve the oceans and the forests.”
He said that the representative of the senior Special Advisor to the President of the MDGs has told participants what MDG have done in Nigeria, stressing that one of the key things that they also did was to retain what he called the conditional grant scheme that is supposed to be a contributory scheme between the two levels of governments.
Similarly, he said, they also launched an NYSC MDG’s champion to campaign where to get real NYSC people to be championing the MDGs.
He talked about the multi stakeholder relationship, adding that this has not been achieved without challenges, some of which he identified as funding.
He noted that funding was also identified by the United Nations Sustainable Development Report as one of the issues and so we need to talk to ourselves about funding.
The SFG revealed that any office of the SDGs in the country is a coordinating office and frowned that they run into problem when they want to leave their role of coordination to begin to implement.
“All the 17 SDG goals captured here are spread across the states with ministries statutory of the agencies. So when you now come with the budget that looks like you want to be implementing it, want to go and construct roads there ministry of works in your state. You want to go and build a cottage hospital and there is a ministry of Health in your State. But when you put up roles that show that you are coordinating with these people, let the people do the work for you and you claim the credit by getting the information and reporting.
“I think that part of the problems we are having with the SDGs is funding . As I speak to you now there is a bill before the National Assembly to create the Sustainable Development Fund. Again those are issues that are unfortunate the way we operate in this country. The SGF is only a coordinating arm of SDG. The more we focus on coordinating the more we get things done rightly. In spite of the challenges that we are facing, funding, high number of out of school children especially the girl child, prolong neglect of learning environments and facilities. The government through the SDGs office is trying to resolve that problem.”
He emphasized that there is an intricate link between industrialization and SDGs noting that he is of the belief that we are circumscribing the importance of industrialization to only the MDGs 8, 9 and it was further stretched to MDGs 10, 11, 12.
Commenting further he said “But industrialization is linked to 17 MDGs. The first one says end poverty; you cannot end poverty without providing income. The best ways to providing income is having factories, companies that will employ people. You cannot end hunger without having factories that can effectively process the food that we are wasting in this country. That is part of industrialization. You cannot create good health and well being without having industries that will come up with ideas on how to create medical things and whatever to keep you healthy. You cannot create gender equality when you don’t have an industrialized economy that differentiate clearly that this kind of things are necessary for us. So you go through all the MDGs they are important, but if you want to tie it specifically to the MDGs then you are looking at MDG 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.
“The bottom line has been said that the world is moving out of the brown wall, we are going to the green wall, the eco-friendly wall. We have the green economy supported by green industries to propel our green growth and that is part of the responsibilities that Manufacturing Association of Nigeria should be able to help us with.
“We have examples; UNIDO has what is called industrial remedy and efficiency mechanism. It is therefore important that we understudy this industrial remedy and efficiency mechanism.”
The question on every lip, he said is what has government done to be able to help industrialization?
“The story of Ajaokuta is well known and painful to every Nigerian. Government is trying now to see how it can be resuscitated. Whether we like it or not the international conspiracy against Ajaokuta used to be strong and it was strong because they had conspirators in the country, but by the end of the day if we can gather the will power to fight that conspiracy we can deal with our local issues. Government is trying now to see how it can resuscitate Ajaokuta through the Ajaokuta Project Presidential Implementation team.
“We have been told about Micro and medium scale enterprise here, government is doing a lot for them, but it is not showing. One of the problem we have is that for example during the COVID era, there were some opportunities for Micro and Medium Scale Enterprises to apply for some resources. Government is not farfetched because they come up with some cumbersome demands, but it is after they have gone far before they said let’s reduce it but some people did benefit and some are still benefiting.
“There is tax rebate, the new finance Act has given a rebate if you are doing business less than 25 million you are not taxable,” he added.
He lamented that the painful one remains power, adding that it will remain so if Nigerians don’t change their attitude.
“We have put a lot of money into power, who are the government people is it the ghost or a tree? No. People collect these resources; the good thing is that government is now trying to pursue them. In those days you steal, you go you are free, but now they going back to pursue these people because those money that were made to generate power went somewhere and we have been tracing this money. Some of us heard about the latest revelation of the Pandora papers, so Government is trying to make sure it pursues them so that we can improve on powers.
“We are working the railway systems and trying to create more inland dry ports to see how we can reduce the pressure on Lagos Port. That is where the manufacturers Association can come in to have sub sectors in everywhere. The problem in Apapa gridlock is human to the extent they have created a vehicle transit area but they have converted to a vehicle transit area. Exporters pack their load there get time to export, but because some people have to go and bribe somebody somewhere he is bringing his load today and he want it out today in the evening.
“This is where the Manufacturers Association can help us to sanitize their members to please let us do this business as clean as possible and make the money we desire.
“We are working on how to have a seamless trade across the continent through the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA),” the SFG added.
He assured that as much as possible government will continue to support businesses, adding that government is looking forward to Association as MAN, whose president, Engr Mansur Ahmed is a member of the steering committee of the national development plan.
“Government is now opening up because we coming from a place where government sees itself as the sole provider of everything. That is unfortunate so everybody thinks that when you talk about policy making it is only government. It is not only government alone that is involved in policy making. So we need to interface more with MAN.
He recalled that about three or four years ago they had the greatest embarrassment about 3 or 4 years ago we had the greatest embarrassment on illegal shipment of pangolin scales from Nigeria that were seized.
He noted that he personally remembered sending two or three letters to the Agric sub sector of the MAN, but they sit back thinking that government has come with their problems.
He therefore advised that as manufacturers, their benefit is from what they do that generates their income and the more they make government to do the right thing the better it is going to be for all.
“Indeed, Nigeria is yet to make appreciable progress in the quest for industrialization due these issues enumerated and highlighted by all speakers. It is however important for all relevant sectors to come together and change this narrative for the better.
“Once more, I want to assure you of government commitment to partnering with the private sector to move Nigeria from the present place to place of economic development. As I look forward to receive more concrete actions from you on this conversation and government will see how we can re-engineer some of those things,” Mustapha said.
The moderator, Prof Tunji Olaopa, Directing Staff, National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies commended the panelists on how they dissected all the issues such as natural resources use, resource depletion, negative environmental degradation, occasioned by small scale activities, illegal mining practices without environmental impact assessment in the formal sector, critical red light on the industry and policy, the green wall initiative and issue of likely looming food crisis based on issue of deforestation and soil distortion, the political side, good and smart best practices that they think Nigeria should be trying to benchmark in industrialization and SDGs.
He urged MAN to prepare a communiqué that will be sent to both the government and all industry stakeholders on the way going forward in the quest for industrialization as a pathway for sustainable development goals in Nigeria.
