NIGERIA spent N3.53 trillion in the first half of 2025 alone importing raw materials that could be sourced locally, the Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof Nnanyelugo Ike-Munonso, has revealed.
This was as the National AssemblyNational Assembly raised concern over the N770 billion reduction in the proposed 2026 allocation to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
Meanwhile, the House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee investigating power sector reforms and expenditure between 2006 and 2024 has constituted a seven-man panel to conduct a forensic audit of the usage of gas supplied to electricity Generation Companies (GenCos) across the country.
Speaking at the RMRDC 38th anniversary in Abuja yesterday, Ike-Munonso described the figure as evidence of a long-standing structural problem in Nigeria’s industrial sector.
He noted that RMRDC itself was created on February 10, 1988, as a response to a similar crisis in the 1980s when falling oil prices exposed Nigeria’s dangerous dependence on imported industrial inputs.
The RMRDC DG traced the council’s origin to the 1983 industrial workshop by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the Federal Ministry of Industries, and the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), which led to the famous ‘The Raw Materials Question’ conference.
According to him, nearly four decades later, that question still defines Nigeria’s industrial reality.
The DG announced that a bill to amend the RMRDC Act 2022, which has passed all legislative stages and is awaiting presidential assent, would compel a minimum of 30 per cent value addition to raw materials before export and discourage the importation of raw materials available locally.
He added that the council had deployed an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and would launch the National Raw Materials and Products Statistical Information System (NRMPSIS) later this month to make data on Nigerian raw materials accessible for investors and industrial planners globally.
THE National Assembly noted that the N770 billion cut in the agric ministry’s budget could undermine Nigeria’s food security ambitions despite the Federal Government’s declaration of a food security emergency.
The concern was raised yesterday in Abuja during a joint budget defence session of the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Agricultural Production, Services and Rural Development.
At the session, the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Aliyu AbdullahiAliyu Abdullahi, presented the ministry’s 2026 budget proposal.
The lawmakers noted that while total planned national expenditure was projected to rise by 21 per cent to N58.47 trillion in 2026, allocation to the agriculture ministry declined significantly from N2.22 trillion in 2025 to N1.45 trillion in the 2026 proposal.
Chairman of the House Committee on Agricultural Production and Services, Bello Ka’oje, described the development as a troubling contradiction at a time agriculture is expected to play a leading role in driving the projected 4.7 per cent economic growth and addressing rising food insecurity.
He warned that inadequate funding, combined with delayed releases of appropriated funds, could weaken productivity, deepen food shortages and undermine broader economic recovery efforts.
Presenting the ministry’s position, AbdullahiAbdullahi explained that implementation of the 2025 budget had been hampered by delayed capital releases. He revealed that for the main ministry, about 30 per cent of the capital allocation, roughly N18 billion, had yet to be released.
THE decision to audit the gas supply followed the adoption of a motion moved by Harrison Nwadike, who questioned the rationale behind the continued supply of gas to the moribund Sapele Power Plant over the past year.
Nwadike said the committee discovered this during its recent oversight visit to the plant in Sapele, Delta State, noting that despite receiving gas supplies, the facility has not generated electricity.
Earlier, Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee, Al-Mustapha Aliyu, said there were widespread concerns among Nigerians that Seplat Energy Company was not supplying adequate gas to GenCos as required, thereby strangulating power plants and short-changing the country.
But the Managing Director of Seplat Energy, IbiadaItoto, dismissed the claims, insisting that the company had remained committed to supporting the Federal Government’s power sector reform agenda.
According to her, Seplat’s primary objective has always been to ensure the sustainability and growth of Nigeria’s power sector, rather than undermining it.
Also speaking, the General Manager, Gas, Seplat Energy Company, Mr Olubukola Fasoyin, disclosed that the Sapele Power Plant owesSeplat N20 billion for gas supplied.
Aliyu expressed shock and disappointment that a company of Seplat’s stature allegedly lacked the internal structure to detect foul play in the utilisation of gas supplied to power plants.
