Shettima: Tinubu’s industrialisation agenda will replicate Benin’s manufacturing success
Vice President Kashim Shettima has said Nigeria will replicate key elements of the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ) in the Republic of Benin as part of the Federal Government’s industrialisation agenda, declaring that Africa must take its rightful place in global trade by adding value to its natural resources.
Speaking on Friday during an official tour of the industrial hub in Cotonou alongside six Nigerian governors, Shettima said the Tinubu administration was committed to ensuring that no part of the country was left behind in its industrial development drive.
He said the visit was aimed at studying successful African industrial models that Nigeria could adapt under President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
“We are here essentially at the behest of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in the spirit of his Renewed Hope Agenda to see and do a peer review of global best practice and value addition,” Shettima said.
“We are setting up eight agro-industrial zones in eight states in our country. This is an African success story where there is a whole chain of value addition in cotton, cashew and soybean value chains.
“Be rest assured that we have learnt a lot of lessons through this visit and we are going to replicate a lot of that in Nigeria, as we are focused on becoming one of the industrialised nations in the world.”
The Vice President lamented Africa’s limited earnings from the global cotton industry despite being a major producer of the crop.
“Of the $370 billion worth of global cotton, Africa benefits from only about one per cent of that amount,” he said, adding that reviving Nigeria’s textile value chain would create millions of jobs, boost non-oil exports and stimulate economic growth.
