Businessman on blurred background using tech devices and icons thin line interface
- We need to find out why policies toward this objective are not working and adjust them appropriately
The assertion by Mrs. Kofowora Akinkugbe, Managing Director of SecureID Limited that Nigeria loses billions of naira to capital flight due to lack of technology transfer has once again raised the need for concerted effort to redeem the situation. Speaking to a national newspaper, Mrs Akinkugbe said: “We are now at a point where we must decide whether Nigeria will continue to be a buyer of ideas and innovative solutions or create them by ourselves for future enhancements as enablers of sustainable development and growth.”
Her statement should resonate with the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, considering the far reaching structural economic adjustments the government has embarked upon. Of course, we are aware the Federal Government has a number of agencies and programmes to pursue technology transfer.
They include the Coastal and Inland Shipping (Cabotage) Act, 2003, to encourage domestic participation in Maritime and Blue Economy, the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act, 2010, in the Oil and Gas sector, and the National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) Act, 2014, to regulate development in the automotive industry, among others.
If the lamentation of Mrs Akinkugbe reflects the current state of affairs, then the authorities must review why the policies are not yielding the desired results. In her words: “Let’s be honest, our manufacturing sector is not where it should be. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 2024 manufacturing contributed just 8.4 per cent to Nigeria’s GDP last year, down from 10 per cent five years ago.” Even with the recent increase in the nation’s GDP, that number is low.
Drawing a comparative analysis with other countries, Akinkugbe challenged African countries to do better. She said: “Meanwhile, countries like Vietnam have crossed 25 per cent and of course, we know China sits comfortably above 28 per cent and then we were told yesterday from the statistic that Africa as a whole contributes just 1.9 per cent to global manufacturing outputs, despite having nearly 20 per cent of the world’s population, this gap, as far as I’m concerned, represents a missed opportunity, but it’s a crisis that we must urgently address, but it’s not all bad news.”
Her argument resonates, more so as Nigeria has the enormous potential to do much better than she is doing currently. Mrs Akinkugbe said: “There has been some achievements in the manufacturing sector …, through the entrepreneurial spirit of our Nigerian industrialists and the collaborative support of government over the years, but there is clearly room for improvement, and it will be my pleasure to see us discuss it and see how we can make Nigeria fully industrialised and not just partially industrialised.”
Nigeria can learn from other countries which have become industrialised within a few decades. Countries like China, India, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia and many others were in the same boat as Nigeria in the 1960s, but today, they are highly industrialised. We should find out what they did, and then copy it.
We know that at the root of industrialisation is proficiency in Mathematics and Sciences. What is the outcome of the special science schools established to nurture such competences? We also know that some countries send their best and brightest to the best universities in the world to gain proficiency and return home to help their fatherland.
We urge the Federal Government and the various agencies established for the purpose of industrialisation and technology transfer to engage in conscious efforts to achieve their mandate. The necessary human and material resources needed to help Nigeria make a quantum leap to industrialisation should be put in place. Nigeria should be a beacon of hope for the rest of Africa, more so as one in every five African is a Nigerian.
