I wonder if finance minister Wale Edun has sat down to calculate how many jobs would be created and figured out by how much Nigeria’s economy would grow if we manufactured say 10m units of the following products annually

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Volkswagen Beetle

[2] AK-47 assault rifle

[3] Kenwood mixer

[4] Phillips pressing iron

[5] Samsung mobile phone

[6] Dell laptop computer

[7] Sekonda wrist watch

[8] Bosch fridge-freezer

[9] LG flatscreen television

[10] Nike trainers

All these products are or were market leaders in their sectors as they were targeted at the mass market. For instance, after World War Two, one in three cars sold in West Germany during the reconstruction period was a Volkswagen Beetle.

So successful was the Volkswagen Beetle that Ford wanted to acquire the company and the Soviet Union’s Lada had its eyes on it too. Why Innoson did not buy the rights to the car when Volkswagen stopped producing the Beetle is totally beyond me.

Nigeria needs to manufacture her way out of the current economic depression but I doubt if we have got that message yet. We are still thinking oil will bale us out.

Ayoakinfe@gmail.com