ARMS: Minister Rallies Support For Tinubu’s Re-election To Strengthen Nigeria’s Industrialization

 Minister of Innovation Science and Technology, Kingsley Udeh, has called on Nigerians to support the re-election of President Bola Tinubu, stressing that the President has made massive commitment to Nigeria’s industrialization and should be returned in 2027 to complete his good works.

The minister made this known during a press conference in Abuja at the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) ahead of the October 19 Second edition of the African Raw Materials Summit (ARMS 2026) scheduled for the Nigerian capital. He added that the summit will create opportunities for investors, researchers, development planners and industrial leaders across the raw materials value chain from Africa.

He described the bill for 30 per cent value addition for Nigeria’s raw materials waiting presidential assent as landmark even as he attributed it to the great efforts of the President Tinubu’s administration to ensure that Nigeria benefits immensely from its enormous raw materials through value addition instead of just exporting them in raw forms.

He noted that Science Technology and Innovation (STI) are key to the development and independence of any country and pointed out that no nation can be independent politically and economically, without STI.

He emphasized that President Tinubu is enhancing the capacity of Nigerians to build rather than just buy technology in the quest to raise Nigeria’s GDP to $ 1 trillion and make the country a knowledge-based economy.

 “Mr President understands what it takes and that is why he has supported energized commercialization which would lead to job creation and accelerate industrialization. So, President Tinubu is keen on job creation, he is keen on improving Nigeria’s economic growth and making it trickle down to the benefits of all Nigerians,” he said.

He said further that, “we need to support the President to return so that we can complete what we have started, complete the process of getting Nigeria value addition, complete the process of establishment of research, complete the process of energized commercialization and complete the process of transfer of technology.”

The minister pointed out that the summit is a forum for collaboration, coordination and sharing of ideas as all the participants from different spectrums of the innovation ecosystem of Africa particularly Nigeria, will interact, identify problems and proffer solutions among other decisions that will be reached through concerted efforts.

“There will be concerted effort to move Africa from exporting raw materials to exporting finished goods through value addition,” he added.

While welcoming the minister Earlier, the director general of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Professor Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, said the issues concerning the transformation of Africa’s raw materials have become paramount and the minister as the supervising head of the agencies under the Ministry has immense contributions to make in the project.