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UNESC Enlightens Mpape Community on COVID-19

Published

6 years ago

February 15, 2021

Joel Ajayi

United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESC) at the weekend, carried out a one-day awareness and sensitization campaign to educate Mpape residents on how to prevent contracting COVID-19.

The Special Advisory Council of United Nations in Nigeria UNESC has been working hard toward poverty eradication, education of citizen and help in disseminating relevant information and prevention strategies against COVID-19 in the country stressed that the pandemic is real that they should take it serious.

COVID-19 pandemic is already affecting around 146,354 people and at the origin of over 1,753 deaths in Nigeria, the health situation is fed by a lack of strategic official communication, or even by widespread misinformation.

While educating over 200 women on Sunday in Abuja the Medical Director of UNESC Dr Juliet Essien Ayei said Covid-19 is real and that nobody should deceive you that there is no Covid-19

She expressed that, the sanitary crisis and the myths around it are interacting with the socio-economic difficulties and conflicts that the country is currently facing, either by aggravating them or by risking engendering new ones.

According to her, the more you take care of your environment the healthier our future.

“Some people may think that Covid-19 is witchcraft but please it is not.

“This virus can last for seven hours, so make sure you wash your hands with soap because soap can easily wash it away.

“Wear your facemask whenever you are going out and remove it when you are in your house. You know Covid-19 is unlike tuberculosis that can spread through coughing.”

Dr. Ayei urged women to take care of themselves properly: “Rule to follow to stop the spread of COVID-19 and to protect ourselves from COVID—19 is just to follow protocols and make our society better.

“Keep distance, cover your cough, and use of face mask”: she advised

On his own, the National President of the UNESC Africa Prof Nathan Tor Luga said revealed that aim of UNESC in Nigeria is to eradicate poverty and this is the first time the Nigeria UNESC will do such programme and subsequently, we will do much more than this.

“By April 12, 2021, we are going to have world president and the country general here in Nigeria and after April we are going to start our UNESC project fully across all the 36 States in Nigeria.

“Our vision is by 2030 we will be able to achieve our goal which is part of the United Nations development goals which we are aiming at eradicating poverty.

“One of the areas we are going to focus is education because without education we cannot achieve any meaningful development…

“We want to really kick start the poverty eradication, and we believe that without education, knowledge and there nothing you can do in solving someone’s problem, we are going to visit schools to impact the knowledge to the school.”

In her address, the Chairman of Nigeria UNESC Dr. Ngozi Blessing expressed that the organization will leave no stone unturned to ensure Nigerians are empower to eradicate poverty in the country.

Our target is to achieve SGD goal by the year 2030 and we classify it into three the socio-economic, health and poverty that is why we are here to start doing something let people start benefiting from us.

We are equally showing them some love, by distributing face masks, sanitizer, and food items to residents.

As for the National Director for program UNESC in Nigeria Amb. Hendricks Omale said this awareness is going to be replicated in other all SGD goals.

We are here as teams and this cut across all professionals and we believe in giving our best to society.

“Our target is to eradicate poverty in Nigeria; We are not just talking about giving money alone, we are going to do financial illiteracy, we are going to keep the courage in people to different financial expert, we are going to do seminars, we are going to do empowerments.

“We are going to that in partnership with government what we are to do is to increase the standard of the living to the people positively and realize all the SDG goals.”

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Strategic Partnerships, Diaspora Investment and Improved Workforce Critical to Industrialization-DG RMRDC

Published

2 days ago

November 12, 2026

The Gleamer

By: Stella Azi and Adaora Adibe

The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, has called for a strategic shift from the exportation of raw commodities to domestic processing, manufacturing and value addition, declaring that Nigeria possesses enormous untapped raw material resources capable of driving industrialisation, creating jobs and strengthening the country’s economic competitiveness.

Prof. Ike-Muonso made this submission in a lecture titled Unlocking Nigeria’s Raw Material Value Chain for Industrialization, Manufacturing and Competitiveness, where he presented an extensive assessment of Nigeria’s resource endowments, industrial challenges and emerging investment opportunities across agricultural commodities, solid minerals and waste-based raw materials.

The lecture highlighted a combined US$2.65 trillion global market opportunity across 30 major raw material value chains, comprising 12 agricultural value chains valued at US$932 billion, 11 mineral value chains worth US$1.352 trillion and seven circular-economy value chains estimated at US$366 billion.

According to the RMRDC Boss, Nigeria must move beyond the traditional approach of extracting and exporting raw materials to building competitive domestic industries that transform these resources into intermediate products, industrial inputs and finished goods for local consumption and international markets.

He observed that the country’s manufacturing sector has struggled to sustain its 2014 peak, with its contribution to real Gross Domestic Product declining from 9.64 per cent in 2014 to 8.05 per cent in 2025, representing a 16.5 per cent decline. He also drew attention to the increasing cost of raw material imports, which rose to US$20.5 billion in 2025, approximately six times the 2020 level.

He explained that the growing dependence on imported industrial inputs exposes Nigerian manufacturers to foreign exchange volatility, increases production costs and weakens the competitiveness of locally manufactured products.

Prof. ke-Muonso stressed that the solution lies in developing domestic raw material value chains through deliberate investment in processing facilities, research and development, technology, infrastructure and stronger linkages between producers, processors and manufacturers.

He identified agriculture, solid minerals and industrial waste as three major resource platforms for Nigeria’s industrial transformation, stating the country’s significant production capacity and the enormous opportunities available for downstream processing.

Ike-Muonso noted that Nigeria produces over 63 million metric tonnes of cassava annually, making it the world’s largest producer, while also maintaining strong positions in cocoa, cashew, sesame, palm oil and cotton. However, more than 80 per cent of agricultural output leaves farms without adequate processing, resulting in the loss of significant economic value and industrial opportunities.

In the solid minerals sector, he identified more than 44 commercially viable minerals across over 500 locations, including lithium, gold, barite, bitumen, iron ore and high-grade limestone, describing them as strategic resources capable of supporting steel production, energy storage, electrification and advanced manufacturing.

The DG further drew attention to Nigeria’s industrial and agro-waste resources, noting that the country generates over 32 million tonnes of solid waste annually. He explained that agricultural residues, cassava peels, scrap metals, plastics and electronic waste could serve as important feedstock for bio-fertilisers, industrial chemicals, recycled polymers, energy production and other manufacturing applications.

In the agricultural sector, the DG identified cassava and industrial starch, cotton and natural textiles, natural rubber and elastomers, oil palm and oleochemicals, maize derivatives and cocoa processing as priority areas requiring increased investment.

He explained that processing agricultural commodities into industrial starch, sweeteners, textiles, technical rubber, specialty fats and other intermediate products would enable Nigeria to capture more value from its agricultural resources while reducing dependence on imported industrial inputs.

For the minerals sector, he highlighted crude oil-to-olefins and petrochemicals, lithium and energy storage, iron ore and steel, rare earth elements, bauxite and aluminium, and copper and electrification as strategic investment opportunities.

He particularly emphasised the importance of moving beyond mineral extraction into beneficiation, refining, battery precursors, industrial chemicals, metal fabrication and advanced materials production.

On the circular economy, Prof. Ike-Muonso identified electronic waste recovery, scrap metal recycling, plastic waste processing, agro-waste valorisation and battery recycling as emerging industrial opportunities.

He explained that transforming waste into productive industrial feedstock would not only reduce environmental pollution but also create new manufacturing industries, generate employment and reduce the importation of valuable industrial materials.

He noted that to address the structural challenges confronting raw material-based industrialisation, the DG highlighted the strategic interventions of the RMRDC, particularly the proposed 30% Value Addition Bill and the Nigeria Integrated Information Statistical System for Raw Materials and Products (NISSRAMP).

He described the 30% Value Addition Bill as an important policy instrument designed to encourage domestic processing of raw materials before export, strengthen local manufacturing capacity and guarantee access to essential raw materials for Nigerian industries, and NISSRAMP as a critical data infrastructure that would improve access to verified information on the availability, location and quality of raw materials.

According to him, the combination of appropriate policy instruments and reliable resource data would help de-risk investments, improve transparency and strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s raw material sector.

He emphasised the importance of collaboration among government, academia and industry in developing bankable projects, sharing investment risks and accelerating the establishment of processing and manufacturing facilities.

Professor Ike-Muonso called on Nigerians in the diaspora and other local and international investors to take advantage of the opportunities available in Nigeria’s raw material sector.

He identified industrial processing parks, mineral beneficiation and refining, agro-industrial platforms, circular-material processing, industrial input manufacturing and enabling infrastructure as viable investment platforms.

He noted that diaspora investors could contribute beyond financial capital by bringing technology, international business networks, governance standards, technical expertise and access to global markets.

He maintained that Nigeria’s industrial transformation requires coordinated investment across the entire value chain, from raw material sourcing and aggregation to processing, manufacturing, certification and export development.

Professor Ike-Muonso stressed that the country’s industrial future would depend not merely on the volume of raw materials extracted but on the capacity to transform them into competitive products that meet domestic and international market requirements.

He maintained that developing local value chains would stimulate industrial growth, create employment opportunities, diversify exports, conserve foreign exchange and deepen Nigeria’s technological capabilities.

Through its strategic interventions, the RMRDC is positioning itself as a critical bridge between resource availability, investment opportunities and industrial competitiveness, with the ultimate objective of transforming Nigeria from a predominantly raw material exporting economy into a strong manufacturing and value-adding nation.

Ike-Muonso has demonstrated this since assumption of office as the Director General/ CEO RMRDC in the area of capacity building, improved working conditions, promotion of merit, and maintaining a conducive environment that rewards excellence, innovation and dedication. This is evident in his institution of RMRDC training school, reward for winners of the RMRDC innovation challenge among others.

His commitment has brought recognition both nationally and internationally: Al-Jazirah double honour awards as Public Servant /Government Agency of the year 2024-2025 and the recent election as the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Representative on the Board of the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organisations (WAITRO) is a attestation to his commitment.

Concluding the lecture, the DG charged staff, researchers, manufacturers and investors to see themselves as nation builders in the new era of raw materials-led industrialization.

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