Dike Onwuamaeze
The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has stated that reducing the structural cost of doing business in Nigeria and ensuring export competitiveness should become the foremost objectives of the country’s industrial policy.
According to CPPE, international markets reward firms that consistently deliver competitive prices, superior quality, reliable supply, timely delivery and compliance with global standards.
The Chief Executive Officer of CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, stated this in a paper titled, “Industrial Policy, Manufacturing Competitiveness and the Future of Nigeria’s Production Economy,” which he presented last week during the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) mid-year economic review and outlook.
Yusuf said that Nigeria’s manufacturing strategy should rest on five mutually reinforcing pillars in order for the country to emerge as one of Africa’s leading industrial economies.
He identified these pillars as competitive production costs, productivity and innovation, competitive value chain, export competitiveness and institutions that enable enterprise.
He said: “Taken together, these five pillars constitute more than an industrial policy framework. They provide a national competitiveness strategy capable of transforming manufacturing into the principal engine of productivity, investment, exports and inclusive economic growth.”
According to him, “these are not theoretical constructs. Rather, they reflect the practical experience of economies that have successfully industrialised. Together, they provide a comprehensive framework for lowering production costs, raising productivity, strengthening industrial capability and positioning Nigerian firms to compete successfully within Africa and global markets.”
Yusuf asserted that industrial competitiveness begins with the economics of production, adding that, “No manufacturing economy can achieve sustained competitiveness where firms face unreliable electricity, high logistics costs, expensive finance, multiple regulatory charges and deficient infrastructure. Under such conditions, improvements within individual firms are often overwhelmed by structural disadvantages beyond their control.”
He, therefore, said that “reducing the structural cost of doing business should therefore become the foremost objective of industrial policy.
He added, “This requires reliable and competitively priced electricity, efficient transport corridors, modern ports, lower logistics costs, affordable long-term industrial finance, predictable taxation and streamlined regulation. These are not isolated policy reforms; together they constitute the competitiveness infrastructure upon which productive enterprise depends. Successful manufacturing economies compete not because labour is cheap, but because the overall economics of production favour investment, efficiency and scale.”
According to him, while competitive production costs are essential, long-term advantage is ultimately dependant on productivity.
“As manufacturing becomes increasingly technology-driven, firms compete less on labour costs and more on efficiency, innovation, digital capability and continuous improvement. Nigeria cannot build a sustainable industrial future on low wages alone. We must compete through higher productivity, superior quality, faster innovation and more sophisticated production systems,” he said.
He said that achieving this would require greater investment in research and development, stronger collaboration between universities and industry, wider adoption of automation, digital manufacturing, artificial intelligence, advanced analytics and other Industry 4.0 technologies.
He averred that industrialisation is not simply about establishing factories but also about building integrated industrial ecosystems that thrives on efficient suppliers, logistics providers, warehousing, standards institutions, financial services, technology companies, research organisations, skilled professionals and export infrastructure operating as interconnected components of a productive value chain.