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Abandoning Goose That Constantly Lays The Golden Egg

Published

7 years ago

January 6, 2020

For so many years he has been working assiduously in the background moulding generation after generation of players who have gone ahead to play for Nigeria at the U17 and U20 level as well as in the Super Eagles

He is Usman Ilerika but fondly called Haruna Ilerika because his style of play was similar to that of the former Green Eagles Legend.

Just like the great Haruna Ilerika, Usman was a star during his school days through primary,secondary and later university levels where he went ahead to play for the Ahmadu Bello University,Zaria before he was signed by NEPA FC.

Due to injury he had to cut short his footballing career to focus on coaching and the first thing he did was to lead a group of Youth corps members to the quarter final of the prestigious FA cup later rechristened Federation Cup.

After leaving NYSC to take up a job with FCT Sports Council,coach Ilerika has never abandon his love for coaching especially passing the basic rudiment of the game to young aspiring footballers.

This fondness for teaching kids made him to be appointed by former NFF president Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi to handle the first set of Under-13 players which were picked from across the six geo political zones of the country and later travelled to the United Kingdom where they participated in a youth tournament that had top clubs from England and Germany in attendance but the team did not fail to leave up to expectation as they won the tournament.

These players graduated to the under-15 where they were constantly monitored by the Sani Lulu led NFF before he left office.

This programme led to the discovery of players like Taiwo Awoniyi,Kelechi Iheanacho,Chidera Eze,Taiwo Abdurahman,John Lazarus and many others but their story would not have been interesting if the bulk of the players that were meant to be taken to the African Under 17 championship in Morocco did not fail the MRI scan so the coach in charge of the team was forced to take some of players he initially rejected on the grounds that were too small to play for under 17 team.

The bulk of these players later formed the fulcrum of the team that won the FIFA World Cup in 2013 and Africa Under 20 Championships in 2015.

Unfortunately, the Nigeria football federation has failed to recognise the effort of this great man who has continued to work in the background despite producing some of the players who have gone to play for the national teams,rather the national under 17 job has continually been given to people who know next to nothing about youth football while the man who keeps nurturing them has been left in the doldrum.

In 2014, he took the Nigeria under 15 team to African youth games in Botswana where he won gold in football and in 2018 in Algeria he won silver despite the shoddy preparation.

Recently he took the Under-15 team to a tournament in Japan where they met teams that later participated at the under 17 world cup in Brazil and the teams did not do badly and even efforts were made by the Technical Department of NFF to give opportunities to some of the players who just came from the youth tournament in Japan but it was rebuffed by the same technical team which initially rejected the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho,Taiwo Awoniyi ,Chidera Eze and many more even when some of the players in camp failed MRI tests.

The question now is will NFF listen to the voice of reason and do the needful by allowing Usman Ilerika led U15 technical crew to take charge of the next U17 team and allow the under 15 boys that went to Japan to be promoted to the national under 17 team to ensure continuity?

The ball is in NFF court or like a dog that wants to get lost will they make the same mistake they made in the past by abandoning the goose that lays the golden eggs and give the job to their cronies?

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Business

Turning Africa’s Raw Materials Into Wealth: The ARMS 2026 Industrial Agenda

Published

5 days ago

September 29, 2026

The Gleamer

By Joel Ajayi

For decades, Africa’s vast natural resources have powered industries and economies far beyond the continent, while many African countries have remained largely exporters of unprocessed commodities and importers of finished products.

That familiar pattern is now coming under renewed scrutiny as policymakers, researchers, investors and industrialists seek to change the direction of Africa’s resource economy.

At the centre of that conversation is the second edition of the Africa Raw Materials Summit (ARMS 2026), scheduled for October 19 and 20 at the Abuja Continental Hotel, Abuja, under the theme: “From African Feedstock to African Factories.”

Organised by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), the summit is being positioned as more than another gathering of policymakers and industry stakeholders. It is intended to provide a platform for confronting the structural challenges that have kept African raw materials largely disconnected from local manufacturing.

Africa has for years operated largely within a “pit-to-port” economic model, exporting raw materials while importing expensive finished products.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the summit on Tuesday in Abuja, the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of RMRDC, Prof. Nnanyelugo Martin Ike-Muonso, said the event would bring together policymakers, investors, researchers, technology providers and industrialists to develop practical strategies for transforming Africa’s abundant natural resources into industrial wealth.

The challenge, therefore, is not simply the abundance of resources, but the continent’s ability to transform those resources into industrial value, employment, technology and wealth within Africa.

Nigeria alone, according to the RMRDC, has more than $582.4 billion in documented non-renewable natural resources, while the wider continent possesses substantial deposits of critical minerals, agricultural raw materials and industrial feedstock.

Yet, the benefits of this resource endowment have often been constrained by inadequate processing capacity, weak infrastructure, limited technology, financing gaps and fragmented regional value chains.

From Dialogue to Industrial Action

ARMS 2026 builds on the maiden edition held in May 2025, which attracted more than 1,000 delegates from across the world.

The inaugural summit also witnessed the unveiling of the Ten-Year Raw Materials Transformation Roadmap (2025–2034) by the Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Owen Enoh.

The roadmap was designed around areas including technological capability, climate-resilient processing and backward integration, establishing a policy framework for greater domestic utilisation of Africa’s raw materials.

The second edition is expected to move the conversation further by bringing policy, capital, technology and industrial stakeholders around practical mechanisms for turning raw materials into locally manufactured products.

One of the major proposals highlighted by the RMRDC is the 30 per cent Mandatory Value Addition Bill, which seeks to establish a statutory minimum level of value addition to Nigerian raw materials before export.

The Council says the proposed framework could support job creation, import substitution, foreign-exchange conservation and increased manufacturing contribution to the economy.

Building the Infrastructure for Value Addition

The industrial transformation envisaged by ARMS 2026 goes beyond legislation.

A major concern is the “missing middle” between where raw materials are produced and where factories are located.

Poor transportation networks, inadequate cold-chain facilities, weak rural roads, limited testing and certification infrastructure and border-related delays can make locally sourced materials more expensive and less competitive.

Consequently, logistics and infrastructure constitute one of the five principal pillars of the summit.

The objective is to develop more reliable corridors connecting farms and mines with processing centres and manufacturing facilities, thereby reducing losses and improving the movement of industrial inputs.

The Digital Dimension

Technology is also becoming an important part of the Council’s strategy.

The RMRDC says it has developed the Nigeria Integrated Information Statistical System for Raw Materials and Products (NISSRAMP), described as a digital repository containing information on feedstock deposits, specifications, production outputs and industrial absorption rates.

The Council has also highlighted its transition towards paperless operations and its certification as a Data Controller/Processor of Major Importance by the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.

Such digital infrastructure could provide investors and manufacturers with better information about the availability and characteristics of raw materials while supporting more informed industrial planning.

Turning Waste Into Industrial Inputs

Another major component of ARMS 2026 is the proposed expansion of the circular economy.

The summit will examine how agricultural by-products, mine tailings, scrap metals and biomass can be recovered and reused as inputs for new production processes rather than being treated simply as waste.

The RMRDC argues that such an approach could lower raw-material costs while supporting more sustainable and climate-resilient manufacturing systems.

For Africa, where industrial expansion must increasingly balance economic development with environmental considerations, waste industrialisation could become an important part of the continent’s manufacturing conversation.

From National Production to African Value Chains

The African Continental Free Trade Area is another important element of the summit’s agenda.

The RMRDC sees AfCFTA as an opportunity to create regional value chains in which raw materials sourced in one African country can be processed and supplied to manufacturers in another.

Under such a model, Africa would move beyond simply exporting commodities to external markets and develop stronger internal networks for supplying chemicals, refined minerals, agricultural inputs and other industrial materials across national borders.

This approach places regional integration at the heart of Africa’s industrialisation strategy.

Bridging Research and Capital

A recurring weakness in many developing economies is the gap between research and commercialisation.

Innovations may emerge from universities, research institutions and laboratories without receiving the financing, equipment or market connections required to become commercially viable.

ARMS 2026 intends to address that gap through technology commercialisation and capital linkages, connecting research outputs with investors, development finance institutions and industrial off-takers.

The RMRDC has also cited partnerships with the Bank of Industry for commercial-scale post-harvest processing and a South-South technology-transfer partnership with the National Innovation Centre par Excellence in Shanghai, China.

A Larger Industrial Conversation

The scale of ARMS 2026 is expected to be significantly larger than the maiden edition.

The organisers project more than 1,800 delegates from all 54 African countries and global industrial partners.

The programme will feature high-level policy dialogues, technical panels, an advanced raw materials and technology exhibition, industrial site visits and the African Raw Materials Industry Awards.

The exhibition, in particular, is expected to showcase locally fabricated processing machinery, advanced domestic materials, green chemicals and engineered commercial inputs.

Beyond the speeches and exhibitions, however, the real significance of ARMS 2026 will ultimately depend on what happens after the summit.

Africa’s challenge has never been a shortage of raw materials. The more difficult question has been how to transform those resources into factories, products, skilled employment, technology and sustainable economic opportunities.

For Nigeria and the rest of the continent, the proposed shift from “pit-to-port” to “feedstock-to-factory” therefore represents a broader debate about the future structure of African economies.

ARMS 2026 seeks to place that debate firmly on the industrial agenda — with value addition, technology, finance, infrastructure, circular production and regional trade at the centre.

If the commitments and partnerships generated by the summit translate into measurable industrial activity, the event could provide another platform for Africa to examine how its enormous resource base can support stronger domestic manufacturing.

The message from the organisers is clear: the continent’s raw materials should not only leave African soil as commodities; they should increasingly become the foundation for African industrial production

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