The African Development Bank has stated that Nigeria loses $29 billion yearly owing to inadequate power supplies, while manufacturers in the country spend up to N10.1 trillion on energy.
The president of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, revealed this information on Thursday as he expressed concern about Nigeria’s epileptic power supply and called for an industrial revolution as well as the digitalization of production.
This was stated by Adesina during his keynote address, “The Day the Lion Roared! Making Nigeria a Global Economic and Industrial Giant” at the Lagos Business Day CEO Forum.
The International Monetary Fund estimated that Nigeria loses $29 billion annually or 5.8% of its GDP due to a lack of and inconsistent electricity supply. Adesina added that Nigerians spend $14 billion annually on fuel and generators.
“The Nigerian economy is dying because of a lack of energy. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria reports that N93.1 billion was spent by businesses on alternative energy in 2018.
“In Nigeria, no business can exist without generators. According to a recent survey of Nigerian manufacturers, power outages cost them N10.1 trillion annually.”
According to Adesina, Nigeria is now developing far too slowly and below its potential. The lion must roar in order to succeed. At that point, we will be on the verge of an economic titan.
“Nigeria should have higher goals for its manufacturing sector by moving towards integration into regional and global value chains, quickly rising up the value chains in areas of comparative advantage, and fostering more specialization and competitiveness.”
He claimed that more innovation, industrial policy for the growth of export markets, and structural transformation of the economy will be sparked by a well-developed and policy-enabled manufacturing sector with an export orientation.
“Nigeria can generate ten times more from industrial manufacturing than it does from its dependency on oil. Let’s shift our focus from simple import substitution to manufacturing with a focus on high-value exports,” Adeshina stated.
He claimed that one of the main issues affecting Nigeria’s manufacturing sector is the extremely high cost and unstable electricity supply.
“The source of Nigeria’s greatest wealth would come from having strong manufacturing capacity for competitiveness in regional trade and integration into global value chains,” Adesina said.
