The Minister of Industry, Trade, and Investment, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite, has been tasked by the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) with implementing sensible pro-business policies that are essential to revitalizing the real sector of Nigeria’s economy.
CICAN asked the minister to get started right now by developing policies that would revitalize the productive sectors necessary for diversifying the economy away from oil, according to a statement released by its president, Charles Okonji.
He contends that the minister should put more emphasis on improving the non-oil sector of the economy while also assessing the work and accomplishments of her immediate predecessor to spot any gaps and develop plans to free Nigeria from the shackles that other nations have placed on it as a result of its excessive reliance on oil.
According to the statement, a weak power supply is one of the main factors influencing the industrial sector’s bad performance. As a result of the power issue, local manufacturers are unable to compete with their overseas competitors.
All of the government’s pledges would be mere grandstanding and idle fancy if this issue were to remain unaddressed. To solve this problem, Uzoka-Anite must communicate with its equivalent in the Ministry of Power, CICAN suggested.
Regarding locally produced goods, CICAN stated that they must be sold abroad, recommending the minister to do this by reviving the activities of the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) so that it can promote Nigerian goods abroad.
“The minister should make this agency more proactive by overhauling its operations to enable it to function effectively. This is where cooperation with the organised private sector becomes imperative.”
“The minister should take a critical look at the quality of goods produced and exported out of Nigeria very seriously. This is very important because the barometer for measuring the level of economic development and improvement in the quality of lives of the citizenry of a country is the quality and standards of goods and services produced and consumed in that country,” CICAN stated.
However, it urged the minister to give the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) the tools necessary to uphold standards across the nation.
