Going by a recommendation from the House of Representatives, Nigeria may soon start to copy countries like China as it relates to their approach in encouraging industrialisation, which has made their unemployment rate green.
Lawmakers of the house, on Wednesday, January 26, 2022, enjoined the Niyi Adebayo-led Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment to “urgently develop a comprehensive template for the establishment of industries across the Federation.”
Making the call, a house member, Chinedu Martins had lamented that the unprecedented rate of unemployment is the root of the social vices currently experienced in the country.
According to him, “the 33.3% unemployment and the 28% youth unemployment rates, amounting to over 11 million unemployed youths, verify the lack of cottage industries in the country, which should have played a critical role in engaging youthful energy positively in the production of raw materials as well as semi-finished products, thus distract young people from taking up social vices as the only alternative for survival and social mobility.”
The lawmaker stressed the need for a comprehensive industrial revolution and intervention “at this point in the history of our nation, given the recent developments in the political, social and economic spheres of the country, which emphasise the fact that youths are important stakeholders in the Nigerian project”.
Martins noted that the predominance of industrial clusters in southeastern Asian countries had motivated industrial growth in the form of Gross Domestic Product and massive decline in unemployment, “making way for stability in the economy, political leadership and lower crime rates as a result of their remarkable success in industrialisation”.
Exemplifying his point, the lawmaker stated that building cottage industries had worked “agreeably” in some African countries like Rwanda, Mozambique, Ghana, and South Africa, which according to him, is “an indication that grassroots industrialisation produces an array of positive economic and social impacts.”
