Nigeria’s government says it’s time to review the import substitution program. Trade and investment minister Olusegun Aganga says that a lot of goods that are produced locally are still being imported.

‘We have the raw materials here, but we just export them and bring in the finished products.  For instance, we produce crude oil and yet we are still importing petroleum products and it is making us spend a lot of money. There is no reason why we can’t be self-sufficient in rice production; still, we import rice. These are the areas we need to focus on and make sure that we reverse that trend,’ says Aganga.

The federal government will be looking to boost the back integration program, which has worked successfully in the cement industry. ‘We are going to leverage on that success to improve other sub-sectors,’ he says.

‘But it’s not enough to produce; we need to talk about demand. So, one of the schemes we are looking at is the credit guarantee scheme that will make it easier for consumers to buy made-in-Nigeria products,’ says Aganga.