NRS Boss: Sell Ideas, Not Just Raw Materials
By Patience Ikpeme
The Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS), Dr. Zacch Adedeji, has warned that Nigeria cannot become a rich nation if it continues to rely only on selling raw materials like crude oil and farm produce to other countries.
He said for the country to truly grow, Nigerians must start using their brains and innovation to create “complex products” that the rest of the world wants to buy.
This was contained in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media, Mr. Dare Adekanmbi.
Speaking on Thursday at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) in Ile-Ife, Dr. Adedeji pointed out a sad reality: for 25 years—between 1998 and 2023—Nigeria’s export business did not move forward. In fact, between 2008 and 2023, the country only managed to add six new types of products to the list of things it sells abroad.
He noted that while Nigeria has a very advanced oil sector, the rest of the economy is lagging behind. He said the country lacks the kind of big factories that can employ many people and turn raw materials into finished goods.
“Because of our current position, the Harvard Atlas concluded that we are positioned to take advantage of very few opportunities to diversify using what we already know,” Dr. Adedeji said.
The NRS boss told the audience that Nigeria should learn from countries like Vietnam, which used to be poor but is now very successful. He explained that Vietnam became a “world hub” for electronics by importing parts and assembling them into finished products. This helped them “borrow” technology and skills from big global companies to build their own wealth.
“Vietnam used global trade to build a resilient, complex economy, while the others remained dependent on natural resources or a single low-tech niche,” he said.
He warned that relying only on what we dig out of the ground is a dangerous path. He used South Africa and Brazil as examples of countries that started losing their industrial strength because they relied too much on selling raw resources instead of doing the “hard, long-term work” of building factories.
“Relying solely on our natural endowments isn’t just a path to stagnation; it’s a path to regression. The global economy increasingly rewards knowledge and complexity, not just what you can dig out of the ground. If we want to move from potential to prosperity, we must stop being just a source of raw materials and start being a source of ideas, innovation, and complex products,” Adedeji stated.
He added that President Bola Tinubu has already started the difficult work of rebuilding the economy so that Nigerians can begin to produce and innovate.
Adedeji admitted that the journey to making Nigeria a rich and productive nation is not a short one, but he believes that with the right plan and determination, the country can finally get there.
