The naira has enjoyed a free fall in recent times. This is an indication of the level of productivity in the country. This is also what led to the stock exchange crash a few years ago. Once industry is created to provide jobs for all those who are willing to work, the economy will begin its journey to recovery.
Nations create industry utilising a blend of knowledge and natural resources. Through knowledge, skills are developed to tap natural resources and transform them into useful goods that attract revenue. The goods can either be consumed internally or they can be exported for foreign exchange. In Nigeria’s case, compatriots have been happy exporting raw produce, importing finished goods and then expatriating proceeds to buy homes and luxuries abroad. Inevitably, we carelessly kill jobs in our country and provide jobs for people in the industrialised countries where we spend the little money that would create a future for upcoming generations.
Value addition to solid minerals
Natural resources alone are not enough to make a nation wealthy. They only increase in value as they are processed from their raw form. For example, Nigeria has gemstones which, in their natural state, are lumps of rock. When processed, they become attractive stones and when utilized to create ornaments, they become expensive jewelry, depending on the grade of the stone. Each of these stages – from the primary state, to the intermediary product to the finished one, provides a value chain that employs people. According to Dr. Umar Bamaili, Director of the Nigerian Institute of Mining and Geosciences, polished stones can fetch as much as 500 times the cost of raw stones and the value increases further as the gems are utilised to produce jewelry. Government’s current interest in revamping the nation’s solid minerals subsector must focus on value addition. For example, Barytes and Bentonite are muds used in oil drilling; they abound naturally in Nigeria. However, oil companies still import them because of the huge processing and grading gaps in the solid mineral subsector.
Value addition in the oil and gas industry
The mistake has lingered but can be corrected in these difficult times when our crude oil no longer fetches much in the international market. Nigeria is blessed with such huge oil reserves that merely selling it in the raw form has been able to sustain the nation, albeit inefficiently and ineffectively. History has it though that Nigeria briefly exported refined products but that is yet to be rediscovered. Presently, we still export our crude to a now unwilling international market and import more expensive refined products in return.
Adding value to our crude will make us independent in the provision of fuels like PMS, aviation fuel, kerosene and other fuels and oils. It would also provide raw materials for the local cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries and other relevant industries. A reference point today is a mini refinery owned by a marginal oil field operator, Niger Delta Exploration and Production Company which produces diesel and gas for local consumption and for export.
The Managing Director of the company, Dr. Layi Fatona, finds the foray not only financially rewarding but ethically so as they do not flare gas but tap and process it into a refined product. This venture proves that it is doable – it is possible to drill and refine here while also capturing the associated gas for added revenue. According to him, there is room enough for 20 such operators to spring up in the Niger Delta province to meet the demand for diverse refined fuels in the country and to make cooking gas readily available so we stop destroying our shelter belts through felling of trees for firewood and using kerosene which emits fumes that trouble the environment. The value chains created by the processing industries will create jobs for many Nigerians.
Value addition in agriculture
Nigeria is basically an agrarian economy but we have not maximised the opportunities in the agricultural sector because our focus has for so long centered on primary production. This approach has also led to huge annual post-harvest losses. We have diverse agricultural, including forestry resources that would earn a lot of revenue when taken further to secondary and tertiary stages. A crop like tomato has a short keeping life but it can be processed into tomato puree, flakes, ketchup and so on to extend its shelf life. The Raw Materials Research and Development Council has developed an industrial cluster model that will lead to the industrialisation of our rural areas where harvests can be processed into industrial raw materials. Implementation of this model will create rural jobs and arrest rural-urban drift. Trees like shea butter, eucalyptus, neem (dogonyaro), moringa and so on are potential industrial raw materials both for local industry and for export. The Federal Institute of Industrial research, according to its Director-General, Dr. Gloria Elemo, has compiled an inventory of processing technologies for natural resources in the nation’s 774 Local Government Areas.
A product of their research efforts over the years, it is an investment guide that governments at all levels, policy makers, local entrepreneurs can utilise to groom local industry and reshape our economy. Some of these include processes for refining shea-butter, production of tomato puree, noodles using cassava, a Nigerian staple amongst others.
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