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FG to double GDP share for manufacturing sector

By BusinessNews Staff on February 6, 2014

The Federal Government is planning to more than double the contribution of the manufacturing sector to its economy in the next three years through policy stimulus and investments, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has said.

“We will increase manufacturing from an abysmal four per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to over 10 per cent by 2017,” Aganga said on Tuesday at the Standard Bank West Africa Investors’ conference in Lagos.

According to Bloomberg, this would add N3.5tn to the economy and annual revenue of N5tn to manufacturing, the minister said.

Nigeria, Africa’s second-largest economy, depends on oil exports for about 80 per cent of government revenue and more than 95 per cent of foreign income.

Most of its industrial goods as well as refined petroleum are imported, making the country vulnerable to downward swings in prices of crude.

With about $12bn of investments planned for the petrochemical industry, “the expectation is that by 2017, our country will no longer need to import petroleum products,” Aganga said.

A new policy that will come into effect at the end of February will double the duties on imported vehicles to encourage local production.

Nissan Motor Company will start producing cars in Nigeria in April and talks are in progress with Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp., Seoul-based Hyundai Motor Corp., India’s Tata Motors Ltd. and German automaker, Volkswagen AG to follow suit, he said.

“This is what policy can do,” he said. “We want to move from a country that sells raw materials to a country that sells processed and finished goods.”

[Punch]

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