Abuja: Stakeholders have advocated for a transition to a more production-based economy for Nigeria to achieve its one trillion dollar economy target by 2030. They made this known at the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (NSChE) 33rd Fellows Conference in Abuja on Friday, with the theme: ‘From Consumption to Production Economy in Nigeria – The Pathways’.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, the Guest Speaker, Prof. Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, noted that achieving a one trillion dollar GDP requires sustained annual growth through productive industrialisation and innovation. Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, who is also the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Industrialisation at the African Development Bank Group, said Nigeria aspired to attain a one trillion dollar economy by 2030. He, however, mentioned that the President of Nigeria recently expressed only the desire to achieve seven percent annual growth.
‘To determine Nigeria’s right GDP per capita-growth as it moves from a GDP of 243 billion dollars to one trillion dollars, we need to accumulate an additional 757 billion dollars,’ he explained. The projections indicate that to reach one trillion dollars in 10 years, a growth rate of 14.7 percent is needed; in 15 years, 9.6 percent; and in 20 years, 7.3 percent. Oyelaran-Oyeyinka highlighted that reaching the President’s aspirational seven percent growth rate could lead to a 51 trillion dollar economy in about 23 years.
He explained that growth was synonymous with industrialisation, adding that since the mid-1980s, Nigeria has been experiencing deindustrialisation. ‘It has become our lot to see “Made in Nigeria” as inferior. This habit has foisted on the nation a ruinous pathological dependency,’ he stated. According to him, Nigeria’s overdependence on oil has transformed it into a ‘Consumption Economy’ that rewards imports, neglects domestic manufacturing, and exposes the country to global market shocks.
Oyelaran-Oyeyinka urged the government to prioritise sectors with strong growth potential such as agriculture, light manufacturing, leather, textiles, and petrochemicals. These sectors, he said, have natural and human resource advantages and can generate strong backward and forward linkages. He criticised the chronic neglect of strategic industries like steel, citing the failure to operationalise the Ajaokuta and Delta Steel complexes after decades of promises.
Identifying lithium mining and processing as a key opportunity for Nigeria’s industrial diversification, Oyelaran-Oyeyinka noted that Nigeria has high-grade lithium deposits in Kaduna, Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Ekiti, and Cross River states. He urged the government to develop a strategic framework for local lithium processing, rather than exporting raw minerals.
Bayo Olarewaju, the President of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers, expressed concern over Nigeria’s reliance on a consumption economy and advocated for the establishment of a unified engineering research council to synergise experts from various engineering disciplines. This initiative, he said, was to drive indigenous innovation and industrialisation. Olarewaju emphasised that sustainable development should begin with self-reliance and local production, as dependence on foreign products has kept the country economically vulnerable and technologically backward.
‘We, as engineers, must think deeply about what is going on. We may go abroad, but in our minds, Nigeria is home. We must build and develop Nigeria for our children and grandchildren,’ he said. Olarewaju urged young engineers to take up the challenge of rebuilding Nigeria through innovation, research, and collaboration. ‘It is not enough to complain. We must put our heads together and act. Japan and China did it; we can too. Nigeria must rise again through the work of its engineers,’ he concluded.
