FG Urged to Promote Industrial Clusters
The federal government has been advised to promote the establishment of industrial clusters across the economy for shared infrastructure, idea incubation, innovation, start-ups and overall industrial development.
This formed part of the recommendations in a study on ‘Industrial Policy and State of Industrialisation in Nigeria,” that was sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES).
The study was carried out by Dr. Omo Aregbeyin, of the Department of Economics, University of Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to the report, making success of the attempt towards economic development and industrialisation agenda of the country required a renewed, pragmatic and disciplined approach.
Therefore, to achieve this, it urged governments at all levels to create a stable macro-economic framework/environment; direct the economy along the line stipulated in section 2(a) of the 1999 constitution as amended by returning the country to the path of conscious planning.
Furthermore, the report stressed the need for necessary legal initiatives for the amendment of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (2007) to make medium term development plan (MTDP) replace the medium term expenditure framework (MTEF).
According to him, this initiative would insulate present and future development plans and policies from changes in political leadership at all levels as well as eliminate the prevalence of abandoned projects.
In addition, the report recommended the establishment of the contemplated Nigerian Trade and Competition Commission (NTCC) and the Intellectual Property Right Enforcement Commission (IPREC) as well as promote public-private interface to prevent the manipulation and undermining of the economic development/industrialisation agenda.
“Public-private interface will help ensure that henceforth government/state interventions of whatever modes are the products of the consensus reached through an inclusive process of intensive formal and informal consultations, discussions and interactions among the socioeconomic groups/ interests and/or stakeholders’ in an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and sincerity of purpose. By this, interests and institutions will be aligned and industry will get promoted.
“Strategic and pragmatic state investment in people, science and technology- to promote and support the development of world-class indigenous private and public sector operators, organisations and institutions able and ready to partner with their foreign counterparts to their mutual benefits and complementary to national development agenda.
“There is need to demonstrate necessary political will and commitment to good governance (responsible, responsive, transparent, participatory and accountable, etc.) towards maximising the welfare of the citizenry as a matter of high priority,” it added.
Furthermore, it called for the promotion of the patronage of made in Nigeria goods by giving locally produced goods preference and entrenching it in the National Procurement procedure and process; institute proper monitoring and evaluation mechanisms incorporating all interest groups for the implementation of policies on regular basis; and aggressive development of
The partnership between the federal government and Ogun State has helped to increase the local production of fishery to a record high 1.1 million metric tonnes, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri has said.
The minister made the assertion at the inauguration of four projects built by his ministry in Eriwe, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State.
The Eriwe fishing farm estate consisted of a feed mill, cold room, fish market and the processing unit over an estimated 156 hectres of land area. It is touted as the biggest fish farming estate in Africa with an average fish farming production turnover of about 2,500 metric tonnes annually and income generation of about N2 billion annually.
Lokpobiri, eulogised the partnership of Ogun State towards growing the fishery sub-sector in Nigeria.
According to him, the local production of fish was only about 600,000 metric tonnes, when the present administration came to power. But the figure has grown to about 1.1 million metric tonnes, representing almost 100 per cent increment, largely driven by output from the Eriwe community.
“There is still a lot to be done because our national demand is about 3.5 million metric tonnes per annum and we are producing only about 1.1 million metric tonnes, which means that we are only producing about one third of our national demand. However, we must applaud the partnership of Ogun State towards the growth of fisheries in Nigeria, Lokpobiri said.
At the ceremony, which had in attendance, members of the board of trustees of Ijebu Development Initiative on Poverty Reduction (IDIPR), board of directors, traditional rulers and members of the community, Lokpobiri lauded the people for their self-help and commitment to consciously work themselves out of poverty.
Besides its commitment to the Eriwe fish farm project, Lokpobiri said the federal government, was also intervening in some other areas in Ogun State, including the construction of rural roads to enable evacuation of farm produce, rehabilitation of some moribund farms in the state, establishment of cocoa and rubber plantations among others. With the successes recorded in fishing, the people of Eriwe community have begun to diversify into other agricultural projects, like, poultry farming, piggery and presently, they have also acquired land outside the estate to do cocoa farming and rubber plantation.