Nigerians task Buhari government to revive Made-in Nigeria products

Emeka Ibemere

The new government of the President elect, Muhammadu Buhari will soon announce his team of wise men to help him steer the rudderless ship, of Nigeria and perhaps tied it on a strong anchor of hope with reason that the expected changed chanted by the country ahead of the 2015 elections would bring an expected needs.

 Expectations of Nigerians have been high especially with the promises made by Buhari’s party that grabbed victory from the seemingly unpopular regime of the outgoing President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, after five years run on the stead. 

Many Nigerians had wished for an improved things ranging from power sector, economy, oil sector, banking, Agriculture, corruption, employment, security, education, and other trends of governance. However, some Nigerians would wish the new President -elect will focus on industrialisation, especially on reviving numerous local industries, to enhance production of made-in-Nigeria products.

Some years ago, there were 500 factories around Nigeria, including indigenous factories. But today, only less than 150 of them are in operation. Common reasons adduced to the dearth of locally made- in -Nigeria products was  lack of electricity, which accounts for more than 50% of the difficulties Nigerians face in running factories in Lagos, Aba, Kano and Kaduna States. At a point, most of the vacated industrial sites and buildings in Nigeria were converted into churches for miracle performing men of God.

The dead factories were taken over by churches especially the ones at Aba, Ikeja, Ilorin, and Kano, Kaduna and Ibadan and all the other Industrial estates countrywide.

Observers of Nigerian economy are now beckoning on Buhari to restore power, basic Infrastructure, like roads, mass transport and efficient railway system and industries.

They want from Buhari to create a level playing ground for all entrepreneurs rather than give undue privileges to some certain.  They would want Nigerian entrepreneurs create an avenue to access competitive sources of finance and reduce double taxation against entrepreneurs.

According to observers, Buhari should allow joint venture initiative with private sector to provide power and explore alternative sources of energy. Also, they demand for private /public ownership of roads

“If we have infrastructure and security in place, foreign investors will find us out and more money becomes available and cheaper for that matter”, Offor Okechukwu stated.

“Don't worry, Dangote's and Odetola's factories will never die. There is hope for factories in Nigeria to make headway for locally made goods”.

A trader, simply identified herself as Bimbo, said its not government that would restore made-in-Nigeria products but Nigerian people. According to her, Nigerians are part of the problem because they have refused to patronise made- in -Nigeria goods. She said the factories cannot survive without a market.

Femi Theophilus says Nigerians should learn how to buy products from the locally made products and patronise factories for what they produce. He said the Aba shoe factory died because of China shoes imported into the country with connivance of the government who refused to protect local industries. Femi is of certain that the country cannot produce everything it needs adding that Nigeria still need to import some things. “The US imports most of its oil and fruit supplies from foreign countries, farms are not folding up yet. How do Nigerians patronise made in Nigeria goods when they can’t even feed themselves? Ordinary made in Nigeria garri we cannot buy, where will I get the money to buy made in Nigeria shirts? Another Nigerian queried.

The above in highlight is patently false. Prostrate energy sector, comatose transportation system, high exchange rate, unavailability of loans to local and small scale industries all contribute to the ultra high cost of production in Nigeria. This high cost is passed on to the consumer who has no jobs and is barely living on less than $1 a day

Poverty could be another reason why Nigerians are reluctant to patronise made in Nigeria goods. Even if they wanted to; there is no money to do so. Nigerians prefer second-handed clothing to locally made textile clothes. The same is applied to see the food and juice industries, where virtually every foreign juice dots the dinning and ceremonial tables of novae de rich.

“I never said we should not buy foreign goods but we should buy more of our local products so that they can favourably compete with these imports in the market”, Mohammed Dahiru, a businessman quipped.

Some stakeholders are also of the opinion that that the qualities of some certain products are not improved upon and if they are of good quality, Nigerians would buy them.

“Look at electric wires. Made in Nigeria wires are known to be for better than imported wires and Nigerians prefer it over imported wires. The government banned the importation of spaghetti. Why should I have to eat that crappy Dangote spaghetti by force? Why is my being forced to eat that bird food Dangote calls rice? Nasco Cornflakes to me is by far the best in the Nigerian and when I'm at home that’s the only brand I buy. Indomie noodles rules the Nigerian market, and that is because they earned that right not because there isn’t any other brand out there”, an observer commented.

“If there is electricity, water, roads, railways, security and a good working environment, I'm sure our local industries will be able to improve on their output. But until then let them allow better quality foods into the country”.

A teacher said instead of banning the importation of foreign foods/goods into the country thereby giving these industries monopoly to control the buyers’ choice, the government should rather strive to create a favourable working environment for these industries so they can improve on their products and compete with other top brand products around the world.

The question being raised is how the local factories would grow to the extent of competing when the market is unbalanced. It was gathered that textile industries went down primarily because of change in taste from Nigerian wax to Hollandis, and also due to power failure and other infrastructural problems.

“Let me ask you a question, if Government are able to revive some of these factories, do we still expect Government to keep them going? No factory will survive if people do not patronise their products”, he said.

“I’m not arguing with the fact that poor power supply, security and roads make factories fold up, however Communication outfits like MTN, GLO and Vmobile face all these problems especially power and security yet they still make profit. Why? Because of consumers like me and you, we keep them in business”,

“If there is electricity, water, roads, railways, security and a good working environment, I'm sure our local industries will be able to improve on their output. But until then let them allow better quality foods into the country”. We can also point out the possibility of buying high quality products like the Chivita fruit juices and other stuff of Nigeria, at a cheaper rate, if only government can make available the basic things the industries need to survive”

“In the meantime, if bottled water companies, food and beverage industries, pharmaceutical firms and others can operate and produce high quality stuff for the country, the harsh economic conditions as we have in Nigeria notwithstanding, then I suggest the ones that are folding up should learn from these ones how they're able to cope. There definitely is something they're not doing right”.

Many Nigerians want Buhari’s government to provide the suitable environment, and leave the rest to Nigerians adding that whatever the government do, the public would always be left with the power to choose. These products we are banning if they are not good, Nigerians won’t buy them.

According to them, government has a role and Nigerians have a role to be patriotic to local products. The stakeholders opined that as Nigerians the citizens have a role to play in nation building and economic growth. Buhari was also mandated to put proper legislation in place to facilitate business development. Also, the observers want the incoming government of Buhari to restructure educational curricula to fit the labour force requirements of the nation, in a fashion of Indian, China and other countries that thrive on local content education to inculcate patriotism among the growing generation. Explaining further, a businessman, Dahiru said the new government should reform tax laws to reduce excess taxation and remove multiple- taxation.

Another key area for Buhari government is to equip and facilitate the Standards Organization of Nigeria (NSO), to scrutinize and maintain quality and standards in the economy. “Surely, this is not too much for the government to do. If they can't do any of these, then I think they should remit our taxes back to us and apologise. I am totally against government helping businesses by banning or subsidizing, but they should play their own role in providing what we pay taxes for”.

Attempt by the Made-in-Nigeria Products Promotion Organization (MINPPRO) to collaborate with the government at all levels in organizing a Trade Fair of all made-in-Nigeria Products and services, have not been encouraged by governments. Its understood that as the country continually strives to make a fresh start at turning the tables of economic underdevelopment, unemployment and persuasive poverty under Buhari, Nigerians are eager that among many proffered solutions, the only magic potion to counter the ugly trend is to revive and energize the indigenous productive base by empowering the small and medium scale Enterprises (SME).

Despite the drawbacks occasioned by years of poor leadership, Nigeria is indeed a country that is richly endowed in material and human resources. Aside being gifted with huge mineral resource base in abundance, Nigeria is blessed with human resource with dependable sense of ingenuity and extensive fertile agricultural lands capable of sustaining a wide range of economic activities.

It was learned that of all these, the industrial instability is evident by large importation of sub-standard goods from other countries characterizing the nation’s commercial activities within the business landscape of the country.

MINPPRO as a trade promotion Organ has set as its fundamental objective to champion the cause of sensitizing teeming population on the need to patronize and buy made-in-Nigeria products and services as a way of revolutionalizing industrial process and achieving national stability. It’s therefore left for Buhari regime to hatch on this agency and turn Nigerian business and entrepreneurship around. In doing this, Nigerians expect the new President to partner with progressive governments, organizations, bank, telecommunication giants, SMEs and other stakeholders to carry-out this onerous patriotic task. There are lots of other partners ranging from Federal government ministries, agencies, parastatals, and core actors in the economy.

The Federal Government under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan demonstrated its commitment towards economic diversification, backward integration as well as export drive; however, there are some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as key individuals charged with the responsibility of realising the government’s vision. But this vision was not actualised beforehand. This is where SON is needed to work hand in hand with the new government.

Nigerians said Dr. Joseph Odumodu, who is leading the campaign to make Nigerian goods, that is locally produced goods, attain international conformity should be bring into the picture.

Reports said the business environment in Nigeria is really better today than it was in the recent past. According to Odumodu while addressing officials and members of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) once said the business climate could even get better in the future if all hands are on deck.  As Dr. Aganga recently observed, “we can no more export blindly, things have changed. We can now analyse, test and standardize our exports in line with international standards”.