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The Made In Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati by Naijatask: 8:17am On Feb 19, 2016 |
Championed by Senator Ben Murray
Bruce, and supported by the Senate
President Bukola Saraki, the Minister of
State for Industry, Trade and
Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar and a
large crowd of online campaigners, so
much ink, saliva, and emotions have
been invested in this old, and perhaps
boring story.
Senator Bruce, who goes by the moniker
“the Commonsense Senator” even
introduced a hashtag
#BuyNaijaToGrowtheNaira. He hasn’t
quite explained the connection, but with
the exchange rate melting down and the
Naira yo-yoing, everyone including our
neighbourhood electrician, and his
friend, the battery charger, have both
become experts on the fortunes of the
national currency.
Senator Saraki has promised that the
Public Procurement Act will be amended
by the 8th National Assembly to make it
mandatory for the government to
patronize locally made goods. Minister
Aisha Abubakar has proposed a
“Patronise Naija Products Campaign.”
It all sounds so familiar but what has
triggered this latest effusion of
patriotism was a Made in Aba Trade Fair
in Abuja, where locally made products
including shoes were displayed and
purchased by the snobby class now
acting as great promoters of Nigerian
identity and entrepreneurship. Senator
Bruce and the National Assembly have
also purchased made in Nigeria vehicles
from Innoson
Motors, a local vehicle manufacturing
company. The interest that this has
generated is good publicity for Innoson
Motors, and it will probably provide
good justification for the National
assembly purchasing more vehicles. It is
also an excellent advertisement for local
entrepreneurship. There was a time in
this country when the phrase Aba-made
was meant to be denigrating, but today,
corporate suits and other items made in
Aba have made it to the status of a
Trade Fair.
We must be reminded nonetheless, that
this buy Nigeria campaign, or proudly
Nigerian, as it was once called, has been
promoted in one form or the other for
more than 30 years. At a time, Federal
Ministers chose to wear Ankara fabrics,
which is supposed to be locally made,
and at another time, the Federal
Government only patronized Peugeot
Motors, which then had a thriving car
manufacturing company in Kaduna.
Virtually every government has tried to
promote Nigerian goods.
And there is certainly no doubt that
there is a lot of entrepreneurial talent
out there in Nigeria, a gift for innovation
and a capacity to aspire.
Given the right, enabling environment,
Nigerians are willing to help
government promote the objectives of
diversification, backward integration,
and non-oil exports which are at the root
of all this talk about made in Nigeria.
The YouWin exhibitions held between
2014 and 2015, showed great potential,
especially in the agriculture and food
sector, and the need for government to
encourage entrepreneurship and
manufacturing. But lessons were also
learnt, and it is the same lessons that
should guide the current patriotic
excitement over locally made goods.
In the end, Senator Bruce, patriotism is
not enough, lest it turns us all as
someone warned into “scoundrels”,
seeking economic restoration without
the right strategy and attitude.
The first lesson is that we need to truly
encourage the transformation of Nigeria
into a primary, productive market, and
not a secondary market for the dumping
of goods. We may be celebrating the fact
that some Nigerians are making the
effort to produce goods locally, but
really how much of that local production
is local? I can bet that the leather that is
used for the shoes we are being
encouraged to buy is not produced in
Nigeria. Our local entrepreneurs import
leather, manage to produce something
labeled Nigerian, when in fact the entire
value chain could have been truly local?
Innoson Motors is well known in
government circles, but have we
measured how much of those Innoson
vehicles is actually local? 30%?
Before Innoson, we had Omatek and
Zinnox computers, advertised as made
in Nigeria goods. But where in this
country do we have young technicians
producing computer chips and other
components? We need to take a second
look at the concept: made in Nigeria,
and be sure that we are actually talking
about the same thing. What is the
answer? I think government must in the
long run insist that those who seek to sell
in the Nigerian market, must set up their
factories here, and produce for the
Nigerian market inside Nigeria. We have
all the raw materials that may be
needed, and we have the market, the
biggest in Africa.
People come here, take our raw
materials to other factories in other
parts of the world, send back the
products and then make profit iat our
expense. We end up creating jobs in
other parts of the world, and receive
finish products that could have been
produced here. No. If Toyota and Nissan
want to sell cars in Nigeria, then they
must produce the cars inside Nigeria
and source their materials and labour
majorly from here, and brand the
vehicles Made in Nigeria and export
them to other parts of the world. In
recent years, there was such discussion
with Hyundai and Volkswagen. Minister
Aisha Abubakar should look at the
records. Innoson can then compete with
Toyota Nigeria, Nissan Nigeria, Hyundai
Nigeria and Volkswagen Nigeria. The
same argument goes for every other
product in need of direct investment.
The point is not about being local; it is
about developing the capacity to turn
Nigeria into a world-class production
and economic centre.
The second lesson has to do with quality
and standards. The recent debate has
been about indigenous patronage as a
test of patriotism. I don’t think that is the
right focus. People like quality. In a
capitalist system, they will make their
own decisions and choices with the
capital at their disposal. And we
shouldn’t be talking as if Nigerians
should produce made in Nigeria goods
to be consumed only by Nigerians,
whether good or bad. The vision,
consistent with the ambition of the
authors of the country’s various
development plans, is to produce world-
class products inside Nigeria. What we
have seen is that locally made goods
often fall short of international
standards. They lack the competitive
edge.
It is good to buy Aba-made, but our
ladies who are used to Hermes and
Louis Vuitton are not likely to trade their
designer bags for Nnamdi bags, except
the latter can compete and become a
global brand. It has been reported that
many Nigerian goods sent for export are
often rejected overseas, for such simple
reasons as packaging or basic standards.
No amount of patriotism can by-pass
that. We have a Standards Organisation
of Nigeria and an Export Promotion
Council: what is the synergy between
them and the various SMEs striving to
break into the export market?
The third lesson is that government must
just make up its mind about this whole
thing about the diversification of the
Nigerian economy. It is not the
responsibility of one government or
administration; it is a process that should
move Nigeria from being a democracy
observing electoral commission rituals,
into a developmental state. We were
almost there under the military quite
ironically, but then the military also lost
it due to bad attitudes.
Once upon a time in this country, there
was regular electricity, manufacturing
companies, both local and foreign
thrived, salaries and pensions were paid
as at when due, potable water was
available, the leaders sounded as if the
Nigerian people and their welfare were
important and there was a suffocating
vision of Nigeria being the “giant of
Africa”.
When students graduated from
universities, teacher training colleges,
and nursing schools, they were sure of
immediate employment, which brought
them life-long fulfilment. Brilliant
students got special scholarships; every
student got a bursary, our schools
attracted students and teachers from
every part of the world. And now, here
we are wondering why? What
happened? This collapse of the Nigerian
standard is the worst thing to have ever
happened. Younger ones may not even
believe that indeed Chinua Achebe was
right when he wrote that “there was
once a country.”
Read More @ Naijatask.com
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Re: The Made In Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati by Bhella5(m): 8:20am On Feb 19, 2016 |
A |
Re: The Made In Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati by chriskosherbal(m): 8:38am On Feb 19, 2016 |
Yes ooo made in Nigeria us our choice |
Re: The Made In Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati by Demily(m): 8:38am On Feb 19, 2016 |
gud |
Re: The Made In Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati by Weblow: 8:53am On Feb 19, 2016 |
Sha they are now learning the hard way. They should just cut importation and see wat our naija boiz can do. This campaign wil be futile if our products compete with foreign product |
Re: The Made In Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati by Montaque(m): 9:00am On Feb 19, 2016 |
SON is way behind their mandate in the nigerian economy. I wish it to be revived. |
Re: The Made In Nigeria Campaign By Reuben Abati by Bevista: 9:16am On Feb 19, 2016 |
I quite agree with Abati on his views here. Our entrepreneurs in Aba and other parts of the country should get their acts together and improve on the quality and standards of their goods. --- There was a time when every poor quality item was referred to as "China". But the Chinese kept at it and continually improved to the point point where their goods pass quality tests in Europe and US. Most global brands now situate their production facilities in China. --- As terrible as the current exchange rate is, this offers our local entrepreneurs a huge opportunity to step up and fill the import gap. But knowing who we are, it wouldn't surprise me if we still prefer to buy an "American Spec" Toyota Camry for N8m ($25k) than buy Innoson IVMG5 SUV for N3.5m. Our ladies don't mind buying a $7k (N2.5m) "designer" bag just to flaunt on social media. |
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