Nigeria desperately needs an industrial conglomerate that will acquire patents for the following 10 machines and mass produce them

By Ayo Akinfe

[1] Vegetable grinding machine
[2] Shoulder held sewing machine
[3] Seed crushing machine
[4] Mobile vulcanising machine
[5] Danfo bus
[6] Molue
[7] Electric-powered Okada motorcycle
[8] Church and mosque loudspeaker
[9] Money spraying machine at parties
[10] Manual cement block making machine

In all these areas, we are about the world's number one consumers but alas, we do not have any company with a patent on them. We lament about how the Chinese come into out market and start producing adire, ankara and aso oke and sell to us but fail to realise that this only happens because we have no patents on these products.

When Obasanjo was president, he tried to float a conglomerate called Transcorp that would serve as Nigeria's flagship company. Had it been successful, Transcorp would have been perfectly placed to establish itself as an industrial conglomerate and apply for patents for all these products.

It could then mass produce them and market them on the international market. This is how companies like Singer, Phillips, Honda, Siemens, Vauxhall, etc all began before diversifying into new areas.

As things stand, anybody can enter the Nigerian market and supply it because we have no patents on our products. Now, there are only two sets of Nigerians that have the clout to fill this void and they need to get their act together in 2020.

It is either the likes of Dangote, Otedola, Adenuga, Alakija, Chukwuma, etc fill the void by revising the idea of Transcop. Personally, I fail to see why they cannot merge their operations into one giant conglomerate with Innoson operating as its automobile arm.

On the other hand, the likes Adeboye, Oyedepo, Joshua, Okotie, Ashimolowo, Oyakhilome, Oritsejafor, etc need to merge their operations into a conglomerate called Man of God Plc and fill the void. One could argue that Nigeria's biggest problem is the lack of a vibrant corporate private sector with an ambitious bourgeoise keen on competing in the global marketplace.

There is no such thing as Corporate Nigeria at the moment and until that vacuum is filed, we will remain vulnerable to cheap imports. Ask yourself how many patents were approved in Nigeria during the course of 2019.