SEID, a marketing communications and market intelligence firm in Lagos, has estimated that the Manufacturing industries in Nigeria is sitting on more than N40 trillion in untapped manufacturing opportunities.

The Managing Partner at SEID, Tubosun Akeju, disclosed this in a report -The Nigerian Manufacturing Opportunity Report 2026 launched by the during the 54th Annual General Meeting of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, held at the Oriental Hotel.

Akeju emphasised that the report provides decision-makers with the insights on opportunities that are most immediate, where Nigeria is already making progress and what needs to be done better to unlock greater value.

“The opportunity is to understand where those strengths exist, deepen them, and build the competitiveness required to capture more value locally and compete beyond our borders,” he said .

The report examines manufacturing opportunities across Nigeria’s subsectors, states, value chains and industrial clusters, while identifying areas where existing strengths can be deepened and competitiveness improved.

It said that Nigeria’s manufacturing landscape was shaped by distinct areas of industrial strength, with different states, regions and value chains demonstrating varying levels of scale, specialisation and competitiveness.

The report noted that this created an opportunity to build on existing capabilities rather than adopt a one-size-fits-all approach to industrial development.

Manufacturing activity is spread across states with different levels of scale, specialisation and growth.

The South-West remains the country’s largest manufacturing zone, while other regions are developing strengths in areas ranging from food and agro-processing to textiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, cement, steel and light manufacturing.

The report maps these differences to show where investment and industrial development can build on existing capabilities.

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Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate Peter Obi has called for stronger collaboration between government and private sector stakeholders to unlock the potential of Nigeria’s manufacturing industry.

He stressed that the country must transition from a consumption-oriented economy to a productive powerhouse.

Obi made the call following his attendance at the inauguration ceremony of the newly installed President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Eric Okoye, in Lagos, where he interacted with current and former leadership of the association.

According to him, targeted policies and a more favourable business environment are vital to increasing the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP).

“With the right government policies, an enabling business environment, and stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors, Nigeria can significantly increase the contribution of manufacturing to our GDP,” Obi stated.

Highlighting current economic figures, Obi noted that manufacturing accounts for approximately 7.5 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, a figure he argued lags behind several other developing and emerging economies.

“Manufacturing currently contributes about 7.5 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP, compared with about 14 per cent in Egypt, 15 per cent in Morocco, 25 per cent in Vietnam, 19 per cent in Indonesia, and 20 per cent in Bangladesh,” he observed.