The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), said it had inaugurated a pilot project in Nigeria aimed at targeting startups in manufacturing of quality healthcare products.
Mr Jean Bakole, Regional Director and ECOWAS Representative of UNIDO, said on Tuesday in Abuja that the best way to promote the manufacturing sector in a country was by producing high quality products.
He added that UNIDO piloted a programme to train Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to produce high quality health products.
According to him, to manufacture products locally, it was imperative to improve on the quality especially when it has to do with health products to prevent negative effects.
He said that UNIDO had selected about 200 SMEs for the project, adding that the organisation had covered about 23 states in the country.
Bakole, who said that UNIDO was supporting the Nigerian government with its country programme, added that it had another tool called ‘ ‘the programme partnership”.
He stated that the important thing about the project was that it targeted startups which constituted the future of the global economy, saying that Nigeria cannot lag behind.
“Startups constitute a high category of actors that cannot be ignored and there is a significant amount of startups globally.
“In 2021, startups contributed approximately three trillion dollars globally in terms of value
“In Africa they contributed $7billion, while about $1billion was also contributed in Nigeria in terms of value.
“This means that they constitute a big potential force for the country and because these initiatives are driven by young people, we have to support them to move ahead,” he said.
The regional director said that the programme was the country programme of the Nigerian government and UNIDO relied on the achievements made so far in the sector from the government of Nigeria.
“Our activities constitute a clean response to state and federal industrial needs and UNIDO saw strong support from the Nigerian government.
“We cannot move ahead without the ownership by the government
“We have engaged in a dialogue and some projects with 10 states which were integrated with a number of UNIDO programmes.
“We have also been working on some other projects in states such as Gombe, Ogun and Nasarawa.
“We are also engaged in other state governments’ policies, industrial policies, environmental policies amongst others,” he added.
Bakole added that the organisation’s programme in Nigeria and the country’s implementation was highly supported by the Nigerian government.
