10 manufacturers we need to drag to Nigeria by fire by force come 2021

Ayo Akinfe

(1) John Deere - Our plans to commercialise and industrialise agriculture will get nowhere unless we can produce crops competitively. To do this, our farming has to become mechanised, so John Deere, this agricultural equipment manufacturer simply has to be present in the Nigerian economy, churning out tractors, crushing machines, harvesting equipment, seed planting machines, irrigation sprinklers, etc by the thousand every day.

(2) Mars - As we step up our agricultural expansion plan, we need a major food processor in the country to turn our raw products into finished goods. For instance, Mars should build the world’s largest chocolate manufacturing plant in Nigeria that converts all West African cocoa into finished chocolate bars ready for export to the rest of the world

(3) Embraer - This Brazilian aircraft manufacturer has not been a good brother to its fellow developing nation Nigeria. Outside Africa, Brazil has the largest number of negroid people in the world. I want to see Embraer set up a manufacturing facility in Nigeria that supplies all of Africa’s airlines with their aircrafts

(4) Toyota - This company has taken Nigeria for granted for too long. We loyally buy their vehicles in large numbers, yet they have no industrial presence in the country. I want to see at least two Toyota manufacturing plants in Nigeria where they make say engine blocks, body carcasses and even venture into other sectors like producing railway equipment

(5) Vickers Shipbuilding and Engineering - Nigeria has 853 km of Atlantic coastline but yet, has zero presence in the maritime industry. This for me is totally unacceptable. We need a company like Vickers to open shipyards in somewhere like Bonny or Badagry where it manufactures ships, speed boats, submarines, aircraft carriers, etc

(6) Daihen Corporation - This Japanese company is a colossus in the transformer manufacturing industry. They make both transmission and distribution transformers, so if we are serious about addressing our power issues, we need to attract them to open a plant in the country

(7) Tata Steel - No country gets anywhere if it does not produce steel. This Indian conglomerate not only produces steel products but also works on the technology of the future. We need a local subsidiary that not only runs Ajaokuta and Aladja but also manufacturers machine tools and other equipment like railway carriages

(8) Raleigh - Everywhere else on planet earth, humanity is thinking green. As part of this drive, Nigeria needs to pedestrianise some of her city centres, only allowing bicycles through. Every Nigerian villager too can ride a bicycle, so why are we not home to the world’s largest bicycle plant?

(9) Samsung - This is the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. It is ludicrous to expect 200m people to keep importing handsets. We need them manufactured locally

(10) Nike - This company is the kit sponsor of the Super Eagles. In 2018, they sold 3m of our jerseys worldwide. If they opened a plant in Nigeria to produce these tops locally at a cheaper price, who said they could not sell 50m pieces