$1tn economy: Why Tinubu should naturally get second term in 2027 – RMRDC boss

Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Nnanyelugo Martin Ike-Muonso, has backed President Bola Tinubu’s re-election bid, arguing that continuity in government would help sustain economic reforms, boost industrialisation and accelerate Nigeria’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.

Ike-Muonso stated this on Thursday in Abuja when the leadership of the Tinubu Support Group (TSG), led by its Director-General, Dr Umar Tanko Yakassai, visited the council to assess its achievements and challenges under the Tinubu administration.

He said the Renewed Hope Agenda was creating opportunities for economic growth through policies designed to promote local production, value addition, investment and employment generation.
The RMRDC chief maintained that Nigeria could not achieve sustainable prosperity while continuing to export raw materials in their unprocessed forms and import finished products made from those same resources at significantly higher costs.

He said his management team had aligned the council’s programmes with Tinubu’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy, identifying local processing and manufacturing as critical drivers of the administration’s economic agenda.

A major initiative being pursued by the council, according to him, is proposed legislation that would make it mandatory for raw materials produced in Nigeria to undergo at least 30 per cent value addition before export.

Ike-Muonso said the proposed legislation would encourage investors to establish processing plants and manufacturing facilities locally, rather than extract the country’s natural resources for export without creating sufficient economic benefits at home.

He added that the policy would stimulate industrial development, attract foreign direct investment, create jobs and reduce the country’s dependence on imported products.

The RMRDC boss said the proposed legislation had reached the President, who directed the Ministry of Justice to review and strengthen the draft before it returned to the National Assembly.

He expressed optimism that the initiative would help Nigeria retain more economic value from its abundant mineral and agricultural resources while expanding opportunities for manufacturers and small businesses.
“Value addition is what makes any country to be like any other country in the developed world. The only difference between us and the developed world is the extent to which we add value to the resources available to us,” he said.

Using agriculture as an example, Ike-Muonso explained that processing agricultural produce into finished goods could create employment and business opportunities for millions of Nigerians, particularly at the grassroots.

He disclosed that the council was already training women and other groups in different parts of the country in mushroom production and other value-addition activities to strengthen local raw-material value chains.

He said such interventions were intended to ensure that the economic benefits of Nigeria’s natural resources extended beyond extraction to processing, manufacturing and the development of local enterprises.
The RMRDC director-general also highlighted the council’s efforts to improve access to reliable information on raw materials for investors, manufacturers and policymakers.
He said the council had developed a comprehensive information platform, the Nigerian Information System for Statistical Information on Raw Materials and Products, to provide data on the location, producers, suppliers and value chains of raw materials across the country.
According to him, the system is connected to other databases and is designed to help investors and manufacturers identify opportunities, assess resource availability and make informed business decisions.
Ike-Muonso further disclosed that the council had secured ISO 9001:2015 certification following an international assessment of its systems, describing the achievement as evidence of its commitment to efficiency, transparency and quality management.

Earlier, Yakassai said the delegation visited the council to obtain firsthand information about its activities, achievements and challenges to enable the support group to communicate accurate information about the administration’s policies and programmes to Nigerians.
He said the TSG played a significant role in mobilising support for Tinubu during the 2023 presidential election, when it coordinated more than 5,000 support groups across the country.

According to him, the network has expanded since the election, with thousands of additional groups registered to support the administration and communicate its programmes to the public.

Yakassai said engagements with government agencies were necessary to help support groups understand both the achievements and challenges of public institutions rather than rely on inaccurate information.
He commended Ike-Muonso and his management team for their efforts to promote local raw-material development, value addition, research and industrialisation.

The TSG director-general also argued that governance was a continuous process, noting that no administration could resolve all the country’s challenges at once.
He stressed the need for successive governments to consolidate existing achievements while addressing emerging economic and developmental challenges.

The visit comes amid growing efforts by the RMRDC to promote local sourcing of industrial inputs and reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imported raw materials, with the council identifying domestic processing and manufacturing as key to expanding employment, attracting investment and strengthening the economy.