RMRDC DG backs Tinubu’s second term, cites $1tn economy ambition

By Jude Opara

Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Nnanyelugo Martin Ike-Muonso, has thrown his weight behind President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid, arguing that continuity in government would help sustain economic reforms, boost industrialization and accelerate Nigeria’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.

The DG stated this on Thursday in Abuja when he received the leadership of the Tinubu Support Group (TSG), led by its Director-General, Dr Umar Tanko Yakassai, who visited the council to assess its achievements and challenges under the Tinubu administration.

He said the Renewed Hope Agenda was creating opportunities for economic growth through policies designed to promote local production, value addition, investment and employment generation, adding that Nigeria could not achieve sustainable prosperity while continuing to export raw materials in their unprocessed forms and import finished products made from the same resources at significantly higher prizes.

Ike-Muonso said his management team had aligned the council’s programmes with Tinubu’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy; even as he identified local processing and manufacturing as critical drivers of the economic agenda of the administration.

According to him, a major initiative being pursued by the council, is a proposed legislation that would make it mandatory for raw materials produced in Nigeria to undergo at least 30% value addition before export.

The Director General also proposed legislation that would encourage investors to establish processing plants and manufacturing facilities in the country, rather than exporting resources without creating sufficient economic benefits locally.

The RMRDC boss expressed optimism that the initiative would help Nigeria retain more economic value from its abundant mineral and agricultural resources while expanding opportunities for manufacturers and small businesses.

“Value addition is what makes any country to be like any other country in the developed world. The only difference between us and the developed world is the extent to which we add value to the resources available to us,” he said.

Ike-Muonso who used agriculture as an example explained that processing agricultural produce into finished goods could create employment and business opportunities for millions of Nigerians, especially at the grassroots.

He said such interventions were intended to ensure that the economic benefits of Nigeria’s natural resources extended beyond extraction to processing, manufacturing and the development of local enterprises.

The DG further disclosed that the council had secured ISO 9001:2015 certification following an international assessment of its systems, describing the achievement as evidence of its commitment to efficiency, transparency and quality management.

Earlier, the TSG leader, Tanko Yakassai said the delegation visited the council to obtain firsthand information about its activities, achievements and challenges to enable the support group to communicate accurate information about the administration’s policies and programmes to Nigerians.

Yakassai added that the TSG played a crucial role in mobilising support for Tinubu during the 2023 presidential election, when it coordinated more than 5,000 support groups across the country.

He said the network has expanded since the election, with thousands of other groups registering to support the administration and communicate its programmes to the public.

He commended Ike-Muonso and his management team for their efforts to promote local raw-material development, value addition, research and industrialisation.

The TSG director-general also argued that governance was a continuous process, noting that no administration could resolve all the country’s challenges at once.