By Jethro Ibileke
A Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Vincent Aizebeoje Balogun, has prescribed investments in technological revolution for green manufacturing of consumer goods as panacea to economic poverty in the country.
He disclosed this weekend, while delivering the 3rd Inaugural lecture series of the Edo State University Uzairue, Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, titled: “Green Manufacturing: A Novel Approach to Economic Recovery in Nigeria”.
The University Don urged Nigeria to capitalize on her population of over 200 million people, to explore, penetrate and create strong market for its manufacturing sector.
This is even as he charged the Federal Government to create the enabling environment for green manufacturing technology sector to thrive in the country and to develop the green manufacturing technology through the use of its local content technology for the production of goods in the manufacturing sector.
According to him, “The way forward is for Nigeria to take advantage of the green manufacturing strategy and evolve her manufacturing sector in that direction as we move towards the 4th industrial revolution.
“The state of manufacturing machining in our nation to be specific needs a step change to enhance sustainability and transformation towards green,” he added.
“We, as a nation, cannot continue to depend on imported technology and food, and expect to be classified as a developed nation.
“Rather, we need to employ and develop our green manufacturing sector so that we can create more jobs and take our citizens out of the streets” he said.
Prof. Balogun noted that the manufacturing sector provides the greatest opportunity for the transformation of the Nigerian economy, saying that it is an antidote for unemployment, a creator of wealth and threshold for sustainable development.
He said, “Although manufacturing in Nigeria has a few challenges; among them are inadequate and epileptic power supply, regulatory issues, multiplicities of taxes, trade facilitation issues and infrastructural deficiencies.
“There are some area of strengths that Nigeria could build on if she considers the new trend of green manufacturing,” he said.
He further described green manufacturing as a products through economically-sound processes that minimise negative environmental impact while conserving energy and natural resources.
“Green manufacturing is a gateway and key to competitive economy. The competitiveness of manufacturing and support for sustainable development demand new aporoaches.”
“There is an urgret call at all levels of manufacturing to curtail the emission rate as proposed by United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to meet the sustsinable agenda in order to help cushion the impact of electrical energy consumption on the environment during manufacturing processes” he said.
The Don said that green manufacturing technology are increasingly becoming more attractive globally for the production of consumer products, adding that it minimises and eliminates processing and production waste using eco-efficient practices and new environmental technology at all levels of manufacturing activities.
He noted that Nigeria’s manufacturing sector contributes only 4.19 per cent to the national GDP, saying that for Nigeria to be one of the 20 biggest economies in the world in 2020, the sector must be contributing a minimum of 15 per cent yearly to its GDP and grow it steadily to a minimum of 30 per cent by 2021.
He urged manufacturers operating in the country to key into the green manufacturing technology for the manufacturing of their products.
“Green manufacturing is a national call to the development of environmentally-friendly manufacturing factors, concepts, methods and tools that are important in design and manufacturing of discrete products in order to minimise the life cycle cost due to environmental demage.
“For green manufacturing to thrive, there has to be an understanding and advocacy on the modus operandi towards green mechanical machining processes.
“It is therefore compelling on all manufacturers, including Nigerian manufacturers, to engage in discussion that boils around the reduction of CO2 levels through the minimum consumption of fossil fuels and other parameters to encourage green manufacture of products,” he said.