Charting a course forward post covid: Nigeria's New Economic Plan entitled "Bouncing Back"
It may have taken a while to emerge, but the Nigerian government has finally concluded its COVID-19 economic recovery plan which was presented to president Buhari recently. In a statement attributed to the vice president of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the economic blueprint is entitled “Bouncing Back: The Nigerian Economic Sustainability Plan”
I am writing to express my views on the statement.
I applaud the effort that has gone into creating this plan. I particularly note its commitment to renewable energy from sustainable sources (solar energy). Kudos for protecting our planet - or at least thinking about it - while making good our plans in the long haul for the economic prosperity and resilience of our motherland. In building on this plan, I make a case for “feeder” industries summarized under 3 considerations.
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No. 1. ”The high reliance on imported raw materials and expensive energy sources makes made-in-Nigeria goods costlier than imported goods!” Feeder industries convert natural/mineral resources to raw materials or semi-finished goods. These raw materials and semi-finished product are used in other industries to create more finished goods (hence many more jobs). Economies that have feeder industries import less raw materials and generate affordable energy. Crude oil (an example of a mineral resource - MR) needs refineries (an example of a feeder industry - FI). Iron ore (MR) needs steel rolling mills (FI), wind, hydro and solar (all natural resources) need power plants (FI), and yes! silicate (common sand) needs energy and conversion factories to make raw materials. The list goes on.
No. 2. Creating and operating feeder industries requires significant investments and ongoing overhead costs. Without the scale-of-demand and technical expertise to operate at maximum efficiency and capacity, Feeder industries like Ajaokuta steel rolling, ALSCON (Ikot Abasi) Bacita sugar factory (in Kwara) and the famous textile mills of Kano either never see the light of day or eventually become moribund!!
No. 3. Using capable hands, we must now establish “excellence centers/ecosystems” that are safe to live and work in, financially secure/independent and have the necessary infrastructure/enabling tax structure to be resilient. These centers will be self sustaining growth engines that can lead us in the next 10 years into economic leadership at an unprecedented sense of urgency and singleness of purpose/stoic determination. In place of loans from developed countries to create these ecosystems, we should be getting technology training and transfer and creating self governed and sovereign havens. This will redefine the currency of transaction and make it resilient against corruption. We also need seasoned business strategist and marketers - inventions without commercial value is not innovation!
Epilogue: Clean fuels funneled through blocked arterial ways come out scathed and un-whole; we must unblock the economic highways and remove all road blocks! My heart goes out to a country that is gifted with every conceivable factor of production yet severely lacking in matching square pegs with square holes. Our failure in consistently filling leadership positions with selfless, visionary, capable and driven individuals is fantastically abysmal! While 1 man cannot change the country overnight, I believe that 1 man can create parallel, independent and self governed excellence centers/ecosystems - a state within a state! A precursory look at LinkedIn will reveal scores of talented Nigerians who can transcend the limiting barriers of corruption, tribalism, mediocrity and bias for inaction, and chart a new course forward. It is time for the president to search for and discover the youth that not too long ago he challenged - I am picking up the gauntlet! ”The best use of a good plan that is poorly implemented and does not avoid the failures of the past is as Akara paper!”
On a sombre note, today is June 12. The lyrics of the song by Andra day come to mind today for my country and the citizens of the world who have been covid battered. #covid #nigeria #IriseUp
Written by Ayo Orunmuyi - A doer-thinker and change agent.
