16 February 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) says Nigeria is yet to productively tap the full potentials of its vast oil resources, especially in addressing its social and economic needs.
Dr Patrick Kormawa, the Country Representative of UNIDO in Nigeria, said this in Abuja.
Kormawa noted that the over reliance on oil revenue had affected investments in other productive sectors of the economy, thereby creating serious economic and social dislocations in the country.
“We have always been convinced that the structure of both an economy and its manufacturing industry matter for growth and employment. Each developmental stage is characterised by different shares and contributions by the agriculture and industry or the textiles and automotive industries’’, he said.
He explained that the creation of new industrial capacity through the nurturing of hitherto non-existent manufacturing activities would lead to sectoral diversification. Such diversification, he added, would ensure deeper backward and forward linkage between sectors and industries, thereby facilitating the establishment of a more advanced and competitive industrial structure.
Kormawa also pointed out thatcollapse of the manufacturing industry from nine per cent to 2.5 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had also affected fundamental issues such as job creation.
He noted that countries with similar demographic and natural resource with Nigeria’s such as Egypt, Indonesia and Vietnam had generally increased the growth of manufacturing sector, thereby fast tracking their progress from low to high income economies.
“Nigeria’s share of food, textiles and vehicles is also far lower than the average share of these industries in all countries with an equivalent of 2,500 U.S Dollars per capita. Further, manufacturing industry’s share of medium and high technology activities has not changed much over the years and continues to account for 35.5 per cent’’, Kormawa said.
