The steep rise in dollar exchange rate has obviously affected the Nigerian economy badly, making history with the highest inflation rate of 26.72% in the past month.

As at weeks back in October 2023, Dollar exchange rate to a Naira was N1,300 naira, Nigerians have felt the pinch as prices of goods and services spiral upwards leaving them struggling to afford their basic needs.

Following the situation, a cleric in Rivers State, David Ibiyeomie, who is the Senior Pastor of Salvation Ministries, has said that it is a call to action for Nigerians to start looking at manufacturing their own goods and services.

The cleric, who was addressing his congregation during his birthday celebration, stated that it is high time they started producing their own goods and services rather than importing goods at such high Dollar rate.

A conversation, which erupted at a bole joint around the Mile 4 axis of Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, has also further enhanced the notion that Nigerians should start manufacturing their own goods rather than cluster in the cities looking for white collar jobs.

A woman, who identified herself as Mama Nene, said that things will continue to grow worse because most Nigerians are not ready to hustle.

She noted that she was trained with farming but nowadays, the younger generation does not know what it takes to engage in farming because they leave their villages and cluster in the cities.

“When I small, na farming wey my parents take train me, you go wake up for morning enter big plantation of Cassava farm, very big farm, harvest am you do garri chop still sell, yam kwanu dey one side, plantain, pepper, if you wan cook you go hardly go market”.

“E get where we dey travel go, we dey go do palm oil for Akwa Ibom, my father was a rich man, how e take rich? Through farm produce, e go wait for Fisher men wey enter water for night go fish, when them come back e go buy big big fish roast am”.

Things no hard that time, now everybody don see farm work as work wey belong to poor people, we don leave farming for Hausa people, why things no go cost? Why Hausa no go carry ona do yanga”.

“Everybody don pack come city come sit down, no body wan do farm work again, why ona no go hungry, the young ones of today naim I pity pass because nobody to teach them farming, them no sabi. Everybody dey wait for office work”.

Meanwhile, a group of men at a bar around Oroazi in Port Harcourt chatting and having a sip of drink with a copy of newspaper caressing through pages to stay updated on current happenings in the country gave their two scents.

One who identified himself as Osaro Gregory talked about the Nigerian manufacturing industry, he said they could do better.

“Talking about the need to start manufacturing products in Nigeria, yes we can, we have all it takes to do so, we have the man power, the opportunity is also there, I mean look at our natural resources, the only thing we are supposed to be importing at this time and level as a country is electronic gadgets, and that would have been work in progress.

“Why did I say work in progress? Because by now, we should have our children all over the countries that produce these gadgets learning to come back home and institutionalise it, By now through manufacturing our own products, we should have reduced dependence on import, the common man gainfully employed to be able to afford a job”.

“My dear from facts I have gathered, the economy has the largest market in Africa and abundantly endowed with numerous natural resources. These resources are essential for manufacturing production and can be harnessed only if our leaders look into it with a genuine mind not an avenue to steal”.

Also, Peter Ikiti said manufacturing is workable explaining the steps that should be taken to start.

“Manufacturing in Nigeria is workable, Nigerian manufacturing sector is one of the largest in Africa and the biggest in ECOWAS region, do you believe me? All we need to do is start looking at the things we import which can be made at home and input more energy there, then when it’s surplus you now stop the importation of that produce”.

“A good example was what former president Buhari did, by placing a ban on importation of rice but my problem is I didn’t see what they achieved to that effect, you know, we don’t know what we are doing to ourselves by not starting g now to invest more in manufacturing our own produce when we have all it takes”.

“Let us now get to work, part of what is causing this high exchange rate could be increase in demand of products not manufactured here, what does Nigeria as a nation have to offer the world? Let us start plotting our graph”.

A close look at Nigeria’s manufacturing industry identifies a good number of products manufactured in Nigeria and challenges faced by these producers in course of production.

Products ranging from household goods, consumer products, food and beverages, tobacco, automobiles, agriculture, wood and textiles, chemicals, fertilizers, mining, cement and building materials etc.

The challenge of power supply, causing producers to depend on emergency power supply such as generators, high cost of imported raw materials, natural disaster, insecurity amongst others have made it uneasy for those in the industry.

Over the years, successive governments have made appreciable efforts at promoting a sustainable industrial development through policies, programmes, incentives but more could be done

The Nigerian government should look into masterminding the system to chase manufacturing at home as it’s number one goal, creating favourable policies in the sector, encourage preservation of natural resources with these policies, creating skill acquisition around the subject and lots more could bring the drive home.