Nigeria’s economy can’t grow without manufacturing – Prof Haruna

All efforts to develop the Nigeria’s economy without focusing on the manufacturing industries will come to naught, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) Prof Mohammed Sani Haruna, has said.

Prof Haruna told Daily Trust in an interview in Abuja at the sideline of the induction ceremony conducted yesterday for the new Managing Directors of the agency’s institutes that successive governments in the country had paid lip services to the manufacturing sector. He said the collapse of the manufacturing sector is responsible for the high unemployment rate in Nigeria and it is only when the country has a strong and viable productive base that the trend could be reversed.

He also said failure to implement statutory funding of NASENI by successive administrations coupled with policy somersault is the cause of Nigeria’s backwardness in industrial development and technological advancement.

“The collapse of the manufacturing sector is responsible for the high unemployment rate in Nigeria. I receive many calls and SMSs from people almost every day, asking us to employ their relatives. The rate of unemployment is so high and it is only when the country has a strong and viable productive base that the trend could be reversed.

“When we don’t have a strong manufacturing sector comprising industries that are really producing, any efforts put in place to develop the economy will come to naught”, the NASENI EVC said.

Prof Haruna said NASENI had produced many finished products some of which would soon be commercialized.