Aremu advocates rapid industrialization, economic diversification

Comrade Issa Aremu, Vice President (Africa) of the IndustriALL Global Union has urged the federal government to revive key industrial sector for rapid industrialization, job creation and reducing poverty across the country. He made the called at a press conference to mark the 2016 Africa Industrialisation Day with the theme: “Back to Basics: Revival of […]

Comrade Issa Aremu, Vice President (Africa) of the IndustriALL Global Union has urged the federal government to revive key industrial sector for rapid industrialization, job creation and reducing poverty across the country.

He made the called at a press conference to mark the 2016 Africa Industrialisation Day with the theme: “Back to Basics: Revival of Basic Industries and Creation of Sustainable Employment”.

Aremu also called on the federal government to make power supply steady to drive the industries.

The labour leader noted that it is imperative for the government to diversify the economy, craft a road map to encourage industrialization as a way out of  the current recession the country is experiencing.

“The sectors include textile, garment, oil and gas, power, steel, engineering, solid minerals among others,” he said.

Aremu said that there was also need for government to implement the National Industrial Revolution Plan launched in 2014 for industrial growth in the country.

 He also said that major stakeholders in the country met and agreed on the plan, pointing out that Nigeria was not short of development policies, but rather  lack the will to properly implement the development policies which are wasting away on shelves.

Aremu said it was unfortunate that several years after independence, African nations were still exporting their raw materials instead of adding value to them, adding  that it was time for African countries to start processing their raw materials locally in order to generate employment and create wealth.

He gave a wakeup call to security agencies to curb smuggling across borders as activities of smugglers  undermine the growth of local manufacturing sector.

Highlight of the activities to mark the 2016 Africa Industrialisation Day observed on November 21 include march for industrialisation, job creation and revival of the textiles industries.

Members of the union marched from Eagle Square to Yar’adua Centre, Abuja chanting labour slogans and displaying various placards bearing their demands from the government.

Some of the placards read: “Industry key to mass decent jobs, copy China, re-industrialize Nigeria;  Nigerians stop smuggling fake and counterfeiting of textiles; Buy quality, save jobs,buy made in Nigeria; Africa produce what you can consume; consume what you produce,” amongst others.