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The Regional Director and Representative to ECOWAS and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Ambassador Philbert Johnson, has called on Nigeria to adopt coherent and deliberate policies to maximise the benefits of industrialisation and international trade.
Speaking at the 31st Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja on Tuesday, Johnson stressed that the right mix of national policies could help “mitigate the pains of industrialisation and international trade.”
According to him, “There are gains and pains in industrialisation. There are gains and pains in international trade. But then it depends on a deliberate policy, national policy, tied to these international frameworks to ensure that we lessen the pains and enhance, elevate the benefits to be derived therefore.”
The UNIDO envoy highlighted the organisation’s ongoing support for Nigeria, saying, “We have many international organisations helping you. UNIDO is helping with technical capacity, action-oriented research, advisory services, and so on and so forth.”
However, he cautioned that achieving sustainable industrial progress would require stronger coordination and alignment across government agencies and sectors. “We need to be deliberate, we need to be coherent, we need to coordinate action,” Johnson said.
He also warned against policy inconsistency, noting that “it cannot be said that in the same country where we seek to advance industrialisation, we have policies that clash against each other, policies that undermine each other.”
Johnson urged Nigeria to align its industrial framework with the West African Common Industrial Policy, commending the efforts of the Ministry of State for Industry. “We have to follow the lead of what the Honourable Minister of State for Industry is doing to, for the first time, let us have a very solid industrial policy for this country,” he said.
He concluded that such alignment would enable Nigeria to “achieve much results” and strengthen its industrial competitiveness within the region.
