It is a sad irony that at a time that President Bola Tinubu is traversing the world to shop for new investors for the economy, the divestment of otherwise well-rooted multinational manufacturing companies from Nigeria has suddenly developed into a torrent.

Frightening recent media reports had it that no less than five such multinationals have either left Nigeria or have dropped their manufacturing activities to become importers. These include Unilever, the manufacturer of iconic products such as Omo, Sunlight Soap and others; GlaxoSmithKline, a drug and vaccines manufacturer; and Sanofi, a French pharmaceutical producer.

Procter and Gamble, a household goods manufacturer is restructuring to become an importer, while Bolt, a very user-friendly, a ride-sharing and goods delivery app which only opened shop in Nigeria in 2021 to give Uber a run for its money, is also affected. Back in 2006, tyre manufacturers, Michelin and Dunlop, left the country for Ghana because of the collapse of our rubber raw materials sector.

The divestment gale is also evident in the oil industry, the watershed of our economy. No fewer than 26 oil companies and investments pulled out and sold their stakes to domestic investors. These include influential oil mining multinationals such as Shell, ExxonMobil and ENI. These companies are going away mainly because of heightened insecurity in the Niger Delta and inability of the Nigerian government to provide their counterpart funds to enable the joint venture agreements to explore and exploit new oilfields.

Even way back in the early days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo who also started by junketing “in search of investors” and “debt forgiveness”, we cautioned that such an approach was quixotic and could end up bringing hustler foreign businessmen who would milk and discard our economy. Our hunches were proved right because Obasanjo attracted a number of “foreign investors” who colluded with their domestic partners to buy our privatised national assets for peanuts and sold them off.

Which serious manufacturing outfit will come to Nigeria at this point when those who have been here for decades are leaving in droves? We can only get more trading companies, more so as the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has lifted import restrictions.

The operating environment in Nigeria is hostile to serious manufacturing activities. The high cost of foreign exchange, energy, multiple taxation, rotten criminal justice system and insecurity are killing off both domestic and multinational manufacturers alike.

Our unemployment problems and crime rates will worsen. If care is not taken, we may soon be back to 1984 when “essential commodities” were scarce and unaffordable. Already, the cost of drugs has gone beyond the reach of most people.

The Tinubu administration must restore Nigeria as a haven for manufacturing to bring back these industries. Indigenous manufacturers must be empowered. The solution is within.

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