Nigerians have so much “acclimatised” with USD & taste for foreign goods that they don’t give a damn about the perennial problem & unfavourable conditions of the Aba shoe maker & the seamstress in Onitsha. When you see them, Nigerians, discussing the prevailing unemployment rate in Nigeria they tend to forget that depending solely on import is a conduit channel of exporting labour & creating unemployment in Nigeria. The shoe maker in Aba & the Onitsha seamstress needs serious patronage to create employment.
Patronising them will bring about expansion in production capacity & expansion in production capacity means more business & more people for employment. No import dependent country survives the throes of recession without wounds. We should look inwardly. Import substitution industrialisation is a better alternative to the importation of assorted rubbish. Reduce the pressure on forex & the prices of $, £, €, ¥ etc will fall astronomically.
Many big time Nigerian importers are multimillionaires in USD but building a factory to create employment & reduce pressure on forex has become a mirage to them. Paucity of electricity, not funds, has been their main reason for their lacklustre attitude towards industrialisation but the main reason beneath their excuse is maximization of profit via importation.
Interest in local production & consumption will reduce the pressure on forex & generate employment.
Mr Oliver Okeke
Business man & public opinion analyst.
