Business
Manufacturing Sector Contributes Only 10% To GDP – Moghalu

Former Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Prof Kingsley Moghalu, has stated that the manufacturing sector has not been given the boost it deserves which is why the sector accounts for only 10 percent contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
Moghalu, who made the remark during a media programme in Lagos, yesterday, maintained that there was nowhere in the world where development had happened without significant push from government in the manufacturing sector.
He stressed that most manufacturing companies like the ones in Nnewi operated without government’s intervention, which was why some of them had gone back to trading.
He said that without manufacturing, Nigeria’s economy would not become a diversified economy, pointing out that without manufacturing, the country would not achieve structural transformation.
“Presently, Nigeria does 10 percent manufacturing and 30 percent agriculture, as contribution to our GDP. A lot of agriculture in Nigeria is subsistence agriculture, which may not have the value chain. We need to have 30 percent of our GDP from manufacturing, because a classical definition of economic transformation is when a country moves away from dependence on agriculture for most of its GDP”
Moghalu maintained that over centralisation of power at the centre had, to a great extent, affected the nation’s development.
He said that all decisions were made in Abuja, and most decisions were about Lagos, neglecting other industrial areas like Nnewi, Aba, Kano and Port Harcourt.
He said that unless there was restructuring at regional and state levels, there might not be much impact, stressing that the total dependene on oil has made people to pay lip service to industrialisation.