The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) have bemoaned the declining contribution of the manufacturing sector to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the past decade and what they described as the country’s shift from production to consumption.
They made these observations yesterday in Lagos, at the opening ceremony of a 3-Day Made-in-Nigeria Exhibition (MiNE) with the theme “Nigeria First: Prioritising Patronage of Made-in-Nigeria,” which was part of the activities marking the 53rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of MAN.
The President of MAN, Francis Meshioye, in his welcome address, decried the continued shrinking of the Nigerian manufacturing sector and the troubling shift of the Nigerian economy from production to consumption.
Meshioye, however, described the Nigeria First policy, which advocates for prioritised patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products, as a rallying call that speaks directly to Nigeria’s economic survival and long-term transformation.
He said: “Recent developments in the economy remind us of the urgency of this call. In particular, the figures from the rebased Nigerian Gross Domestic Product (GDP), published by the National Bureau of Statistics, are striking.”
