By Stanley Onyekwere
The Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) has said it has begun the execution of a national strategy for competitiveness in raw materials and products development it recently initiated.
The Director General (DG) of RMRDC, Professor Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, disclosed this in a recent document on why the industrial sector needs competitiveness to participate in the global value chains.
The overall objective of the policy brief, according to the document, is to provide the framework to strengthen the competitiveness of Nigeria and enhance its integration into the regional and global value chains.
Doko explained that the programme, which had since been approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), provided the implementation guidelines with 11 strategic foci which were mostly used in the construction of the result-based management logical framework of the strategy.
He noted that the focal areas were regarded as strategic elements on which all the specific projects for 21 raw materials and products classification schemes from the 97 broad categories of the Harmonised System Commodity Codes (HS Codes) were based.
He said, “The successful implementation of the strategy would significantly impact on import reduction potentials towards Nigeria’s competitiveness in raw materials and products development.
“The design of the implementation framework is built on the principles of fact-based considerations, international best practices, verifiable indicators and coefficients of various two-way frequency matrices.
“It is, therefore, a plan with great potential to guarantee success for growing Nigeria’s economy in the desired direction.”
According to him, the implementation plan’s institutional framework has “the Presidency” at the helm for directing the policy thrust and decision-making.
Over 17 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are major stakeholders with specific mandates to play key roles in the implementation of the strategy and provision of support services.
‘’The Council has taken the responsibility to conduct the scoping study and provide a policy brief for a renewed approach to implement a value chain development strategy that can prioritize sectors with high potential for sustainable value chain development in Nigeria.
‘’The overall objective of the policy brief is to provide the framework to strengthen the competitiveness of Nigeria and enhance its integration into the regional and global value chains,’’ he said.
According to the DG, to consolidate these gains and tackle the remaining challenges, there is need to articulate a national policy on value chain development, deepen reforms to further improve the business and regulatory environment, focus on areas of comparative and competitive advantages, promote public and private R&D investment, and champion intra-ECOWAS cross border trade.
