Nigeria Industry

With an eye on value addition and employment, Nigeria is hoping two new state-backed programmes to support manufacturers will more than double industry’s contribution to the economy over the next five years, although infrastructural weaknesses continue to present challenges.

As might be guessed from the snarled traffic on the bridges of Lagos, vehicle sales in Nigeria are growing rapidly, with automakers seeing double-digit growth over the past year. To try to capture a greater share of demand, firms are looking to expand retail detailerships while some of the more adventurous are taking a stab at local assembly.

A major policy rethink for Nigeria’s cement sector is set to steer the industry in a new direction aimed at building up an export market and improving competitiveness.

As the latest step in the country’s long march to encourage diversification, the Nigerian government has been facing a growing chorus of calls to step up efforts to support the manufacturing sector and reverse the decline the labour-intensive industry has been experiencing for some 20 years. However, any turnaround will require high levels of investment from both the public and private sectors.

As trade and the number of imports into Nigeria continue to rapidly increase, Lagos-based port operators are working to keep up with the rise in associated cargo containers. According to statistics from the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) released in June, container throughput stood at 73,865 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), a 24.6% increase compared to the same month in 2011.

While a large number of free zones have been established in Nigeria since the 1990s, offering a host of encouraging regulatory and fiscal incentives and bringing in billions in direct investment, many of them have yet to reach their full potential, with operators continuing to face some broader challenges, including infrastructural bottlenecks.