The Federal Government has unveiled a sweeping plan to drive Nigeria’s industrial transformation through the implementation of strategic projects under the Industrial Revolution Work Group (IRWG), with a firm promise to shift from policy pronouncements to concrete action.
Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Owan-Enoh, said the federal government was poised to ignite real sector productivity and unlock new levels of economic growth and job creation across the country.
Senator Owan-Enoh, who inaugurated the IRWG in February 2025, described the initiative as “a strategic engine room designed to dismantle legacy barriers, ignite real sector productivity, and position Nigeria as a continental powerhouse of value-added manufacturing.”
He stressed that the Council session, which reviewed 75 memoranda—including 30 actionable recommendations—was a turning point in the journey toward practical, broad-based industrialisation. “This Council is not just another policy gathering—it is a clarion call to transform ambition into action,” Owan-Enoh said. “The time to act is not tomorrow—it is now.”
At the heart of the government’s industrial strategy are five foundational pillars: financing and investment transformation, energy and infrastructure modernization, regulatory reforms and ease of doing business, product standards and market expansion, and human capital development and industrial innovation.
“These are no longer theoretical constructs,” Enoh remarked at the 16th National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment held in Lagos. They are real-world levers already being activated nationwide.”
Under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, the federal government has lined up a suite of transformative industrial projects. Among them are agro-processing hubs in Kano State focused on turning cassava into ethanol and starch, textile manufacturing clusters in Aba and Lagos to strengthen garment exports, and a pharmaceutical enclave in Ogun State aimed at securing the nation’s medicine supply chain.
“These projects are not pilots or paper promises. They are full-scale industrial interventions,” Enoh declared. “Every investment, every reform, every decision must now drive us toward a globally competitive, inclusive, and innovation-led economy.”
He called on state governments and the private sector to fully embrace the IRWG agenda and contribute meaningfully to the activation of dormant industrial zones and development of manufacturing clusters.
“The IRWG offers an unprecedented opportunity to convert Nigeria’s vast potential into measurable industrial might,” he said, urging all stakeholders to move “from rhetoric to results.”
As the Council’s deliberations concluded, industry observers agreed that the Federal Government’s intent was clear: Nigeria’s industrial rebirth is no longer a theoretical aspiration but a national mission being executed in steel, fabric, medicine, and innovation.
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