Chris Ijeli
Nigeria’s push to triple production’s percentage of the financial system will stall until the rustic builds extra of the engineering capability factories rely on, trade operators have stated. On the Producers Affiliation of Nigeria’s 54th Annual Basic Assembly (AGM) in Lagos closing week, the government set a goal of elevating production’s contribution to GDP to between 20 and 25 according to cent by means of 2030. The sphere’s percentage fell from 8.42 p.c in 2023 to eight.05 p.c in 2025.
Dorman Lengthy Engineering Restricted, which has fabricated business buildings and gear in Nigeria since 1949, says the objective relies as a lot on fabrication yards as on factories.
“We’ve had native content material objectives on this nation for over 20 years, they usually paintings easiest the place there may be actual capability at the floor to satisfy them. If we would like production at 25 p.c of GDP, we wish to put money into construction the engineering base first, now not after,” stated Chris Ijeli, Managing Director/CEO of Dorman Lengthy Engineering.
A marketplace served from in another country
The Nigerian Production Alternative Document 2026, printed by means of marketplace intelligence company SEID and introduced on the AGM, places untapped production alternatives at greater than ₦40 trillion. Imports met 64 p.c of native call for for manufactured items in 2025; a $29.4 billion marketplace home manufacturers didn’t serve.
The dependence reaches underneath completed items. Nationwide Bureau of Statistics information presentations uncooked subject material imports reached ₦3.53 trillion within the first part of 2025, up 19.7 according to cent yr on yr. SEID’s record hyperlinks the shortfall to susceptible price chains and requires more potent power, logistics, infrastructure and technical talents to lend a hand native manufacturers compete.
What sits in the back of a manufacturing line
Factories depend on metal buildings, procedure apparatus, garage tanks and corrosion-protected elements, a lot of which continues to be imported. Engineering corporations that may provide those in the neighborhood shorten challenge timelines and scale back foreign currencies publicity.
Dorman Lengthy runs 3 amenities in Lagos: a fabrication backyard at Idi-Oro, a hot-dip galvanising plant at Agege, and a waterfront backyard on the Nigerian Naval Dockyard for heavy meeting moved by means of sea. The corporate describes the Agege plant as the one large-scale, engineering-quality galvanizing facility in Nigeria. Galvanising protects metal from corrosion and is used on transmission towers, telecom masts and effort infrastructure.
“The Madu platform is a superb instance. It was once fabricated totally by means of Nigerians at our Naval Dockyard backyard in Lagos and loaded out by means of sea for First E&P and NNPC’s three way partnership. Paintings like that has ceaselessly long gone out of the country. When it’s accomplished right here, the roles, the abilities and the spend keep in Nigeria,” stated Ijeli.
Coverage and capability
MAN has made implementation of the Nigeria Business Coverage its precedence, with participants mentioning power prices, pricey credit score, foreign currencies publicity and logistics as the principle boundaries to growth. Francis Meshioye, President of the Producers Affiliation of Nigeria, stated at a media briefing forward of the affiliation’s 54th AGM that Nigeria can change into Africa’s business hub provided that it strikes from drafting coverage to disciplined execution. He added that the field’s enlargement can’t rely at the resilience of producers by myself.
“Engineering corporations are in a position to develop with the field, however 3 issues would make the largest distinction: long-term finance for apparatus at charges producers can raise, constant enforcement of native content material laws, and severe funding in technical talents. Talents are the place now we have selected to behave. Via our partnership with the Nigerian Society of Engineers, younger engineers achieve hands-on trade enjoy, and now we have recognised the most efficient graduating engineering scholars at Afe Babalola College for a number of years. The 2030 goal is reachable if capability is constructed along coverage,” stated Ijeli.
With the 2030 closing date 4 years away, how a lot of the ₦40 trillion alternative Nigeria captures might rely much less on new coverage than at the yards, crops and engineers already in position to ship it.
Ijeli is the Managing Director of Dorman Lengthy Engineering Restricted