A professor of Comparative Political Economy at the University of Lagos, Adelaja Odukoya, has asserted that Nigeria’s economic policies promote investment without sufficiently strengthening domestic production.

Odukoya argued that the contradiction had weakened the country’s productive foundations, with policies encouraging investment and entrepreneurship while failing to create the technological capacity, productive employment and processing industries needed to drive sustainable development.

Odukoya spoke at the maiden edition of the Adeleke University Toyin Falola Annual Lecture, held on Thursday at the Performing Arts Theatre, Adeleke University, Ede.

The lecture had as its theme, “History, Power and Accumulation: Reimagining Africa in the Globally Disorderly Order.”

Odukoya identified several contradictions in the way the Nigerian state manages economic activity.

He said, “The state promotes investment without creating conditions for technological transfer. It encourages entrepreneurship without generating sufficient productive employment.

“It expands primary-product exports while leaving processing capacity undeveloped. It constructs infrastructure without establishing strong linkages with domestic production.”

According to him, the contradictions explain why increased economic activity and accumulation do not necessarily translate into development.

“Accumulation is not synonymous with development,” Odukoya stated.

He argued that genuine development should be measured by the expansion of productive, technological, institutional and human capabilities.

“A country could attract investment, export minerals and agricultural commodities and record economic activity while still failing to build the domestic industries and technological capabilities required for long-term development,” he said.

His argument was echoed by Prof Toyin Falola, who said Africa’s vast natural resources would continue to reinforce dependency unless governments developed the industrial, technological and institutional capacity to transform them into productive power.

Falola said Africa’s resource problem was not simply one of historical exploitation, but also the continent’s failure to convert its resource endowments into power.

“The issue, however, is not just to repeat the history of exploitation. It is more important to know how Africa turns its great resources into power,” Falola said.

He argued that Africa could not afford to remain a spectator as global economic and geopolitical arrangements continued to change, stressing that resource ownership without the capacity to add value would not guarantee influence.

Falola said the continent required a combination of knowledge, government policy and industrial capacity to change its economic position.

“There must be universities that generate new knowledge; there must be governments that translate this knowledge into policies; there must be industries that add value to the continent’s natural resources,” he said.

He added that Africa needed more than improved infrastructure and stronger economies if it wanted to exercise greater influence in the global system.

“The future of the continent will require more than just better infrastructure, improved economies, and more effective political institutions,” Falola said.

Source: punchng.com

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Import waivers meant to ease hunger and insecurity on farms have led to a deficit, ending a two-year run of surpluses, as Nigeria’s agricultural trade balance swung from a N740.27bn surplus in the first half of 2025 to a N56.13bn deficit in H1 2026, according to agriculture and trade experts.

Recent foreign trade data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed that agricultural exports fell by 33.28 per cent, or N985.14bn, to N1.98tn in H1 2026 from N2.96tn in H1 2025.

Agricultural imports fell by only 8.50 per cent, or N188.74bn, to N2.03tn from N2.22tn over the same period. The gap between the two movements produced a N796.40bn swing in the trade balance.

Nigeria recorded a N365.74bn deficit in H1 2023, when imports of N926.25bn far exceeded exports of N560.51bn. The balance then turned to a N194.92bn surplus in H1 2024 before it widened to N740.27bn in H1 2025.

In separate phone interviews with The PUNCH, Agribusiness experts, including the Chairman of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Agricultural and Allied Group, Tunde Banjoko, explained that recent government policy led to the shift.

Banjoko said, “Some waivers were given for products like palm oil and rice, and the import tariffs were drastically reduced. It became more favourable for people to import than to patronise local producers.”

He said the waivers on food commodities hurt domestic producers, even though lower tariffs on tractors and manufacturing equipment helped them.

According to Banjoko, “The effect is that our imports will rise above our exports. Second, we will discourage local production. Thirdly, we will be reducing employment, because some factories will shut down if they are not able to compete.”

Banjoko also said weak funding for processors compounds the problem. He said foreign direct investment flows mainly into the capital market rather than into production and processing, so local processors cannot scale.

He urged the Federal Government to speed up the Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones programme. “We should speed up such projects where we can produce enough for our country and start exporting, not look for shortcuts by reducing prices,” Banjoko added.

Meanwhile, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, identified two major factors behind the deficit. He said the first was the Federal Government’s decision to allow some food imports to tackle runaway inflation.

Yusuf said, “The first is the decision of the government to allow for some food imports as a result of the challenges of food inflation, which at a point was getting almost completely out of hand.”

He added that insecurity worsened the supply gap and cut export capacity, stating, “Insecurity led many farmers to leave their farms. Many of them have ended up in IDP camps, and quite a number have completely abandoned farming.”

He added that farmers cannot export without output. Yusuf said, “You can only export when you have the output.”

Yusuf also said high input costs and falling produce prices have discouraged farming. He said, “Most of these inputs are imported, so the exchange rate situation has seriously affected the cost of inputs, and the prices of produce have gone down.”

He urged the Federal Government to cut the cost of fertiliser, agrochemicals, machinery and improved seedlings. He also called for a minimum guaranteed price for agricultural produce.

Yusuf said, “The government can establish a threshold below which, if prices fall, it will give farmers some compensation. That is the way it is done in many other economies.”

Source: punchng.com

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Nigeria is sitting on over N40tn in untapped manufacturing opportunities, with imports meeting 64 per cent of local demand for manufactured goods in 2025, representing a $29.4bn market that domestic industry did not serve.

The figures were contained in the Nigerian Manufacturing Opportunity Report 2026 launched by SEID, a marketing communications and market intelligence firm in Lagos, at the recent 54th Annual General Meeting of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.

The report examines manufacturing opportunities across Nigeria’s subsectors, states, value chains and industrial clusters, while identifying areas where existing strengths can be deepened and competitiveness improved.

It said Nigeria’s manufacturing landscape was shaped by distinct areas of industrial strength, with different states, regions and value chains demonstrating varying levels of scale, specialisation and competitiveness.

The report noted that this created an opportunity to build on existing capabilities rather than adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to industrial development.

Manufacturing activity is spread across states with different levels of scale, specialisation and growth. The South-West remains the country’s largest manufacturing zone, while other regions are developing strengths in areas ranging from food and agro-processing to textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cement, steel and light manufacturing.

The report maps these differences to show where investment and industrial development can build on existing capabilities.

Speaking on the report, Managing Partner at SEID, Tubosun Akeju, said, “Nigeria already has the demand and some of the industrial strengths required to build a much stronger manufacturing sector.

“The opportunity is to understand where those strengths exist, deepen them, and build the competitiveness required to capture more value locally and compete beyond our borders. The Nigerian Manufacturing Opportunity Report 2026 provides decision-makers with the insights on opportunities that are most immediate, where Nigeria is already making progress and what needs to be done better to unlock greater value.”

While manufacturing remains a significant part of the economy, it has not grown at the same pace as GDP, with its contribution to GDP declining from 8.42 per cent in 2023 to 8.05 per cent in 2025.

The report therefore considers not only where production can increase, but where Nigeria can become more competitive by strengthening value chains, energy, logistics, infrastructure and technical skills.

The export opportunity is equally important. Nigeria’s manufacturing export intensity remains well below the Sub-Saharan African average, highlighting the need to look beyond serving the domestic market.

Where Nigeria already has production capacity and resource advantages, the next opportunity is to improve quality, scale, cost competitiveness and value-chain depth so that Nigerian businesses can compete more effectively in regional and global markets.

The Nigerian Manufacturing Opportunity Report 2026 brings these opportunities together across five major subsectors: Light Manufacturing and Packaging; Food and Agro-processing; Textiles, Apparel and Leather; Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals; and Cement and Steel. It also provides a state-level view of where manufacturing activity, specialisation and growth are concentrated.

The report also shows that three of the five major manufacturing subsectors account for about 71 per cent of manufacturing output, making the competitiveness and continued development of these areas particularly important to the sector’s overall performance.

At the same time, emerging strengths such as gas-linked fertiliser production demonstrate that Nigeria can compete where it has the right combination of feedstock, scale and industrial capacity. For investors, the report provides insight into where to enter; for manufacturers, where to scale; and for policymakers, what to enable.

Source: punchng.com

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