The Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has affirmed that the recently inaugurated Industrial Revolution Working Group (IRWG) by the Federal Government, will go a long way in “waking up those more than 700 industries that have been shutdown for one reason or the other across the manufacturing sector and ensure that they don’t leave the country or be shut again”.

Ajayi-Kadir, expressed the confidence during the launch of the IRWG members team, saying that the group would ignite the revival in the sector and ensure the creation of an environment that is conducive.

The 22-member IRWG team was inaugurated in Abuja, on Thursday this week,  by Senator  John Owan Enoh, Minister of State for Industry,  and co-chaired by Francis Meshioye, President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

Other members of the group include the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Industry,  Trade and Investment. , representatives from the Ministry of Power, the Ministry of Finance, MAN, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture (NACIMMA), and others.

IRWG Mandates

The Minister said that the mandates of the revolution group are :

1.  Rejuvenate, innovate, and elevate Nigeria’s industrial future.

2. The IRWG would focus on addressing regulatory bottlenecks, power supply issues, and customs procedures.

3. The IRWG should anchor its efforts on four pillars which include revitalizing dormant industries, infrastructure, and energy solutions, technology innovation, access to finance, and competitiveness.

4. Conduct meticulous audits of industries that once thrived but have since stagnated.

5. Formulating bespoke intervention strategies for their resurgence.

Chinese smartphone firm Oppo has unveiled its new flagship folding phone Thursday, touting a slimmer body and artificial intelligence-focused features in a bid to compete with high-end foldable devices from the likes of Samsung and Huawei.

CNBC reports that the company’s Find N5 phone that can fold in half, will retail at a starting price of 2,499 Singapore dollars ($1,867.70).

When it’s folded shut, the Find N5 looks like a normal bar-shaped phone with a 6.62-inch display.

The device can then be folded outward to show a larger, 8.12-inch tablet. Most notably, the phone has an ultra-thin design.

When closed, it measures 8.93 millimeters thick, while when opened out in tablet form, the Find N5 has a depth of 4.21 millimeters.

That’s slimmer than Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 6, which the South Korean tech giant released last year. Inside the device is a razer-thin 5,600 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery that’s no bigger than a credit card.

Oppo said the battery incorporates a silicon-carbon material, which enables high battery capacity despite its small size.

Oppo is hoping it can win business from the likes of Samsung and Chinese tech giant Huawei, both major smartphone players seeking to shake the market out of an innovation slowdown with flashy new models that can bend.

Earlier this week, Huawei launched the Mate XT, a “trifold” phone with three screens, outside of China for the first time.

The Central Bank of Nigeria Monetary Policy Committee has retained the country’s interest rate at 27.50 percent in January, the same rate as in November last year amid inflation drops.

It also retained the Cash Reserve Ratio, CRR at 50 basis points and the liquidity ratio, LR, at 30 percent and the asymmetric corridor at +500/-100 basis points around the MPR; other monetary policy decisions were retained.

CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso disclosed this in a press briefing on Thursday after 299th MPC in Abuja.

The apex bank boss explained that the rate pause was necessary following the recent inflation decline, which dropped to 24.48 percent in January after the Consumer Price Index rebase.

“The members of the MPC unanimously agreed to retain the interest rate at 27.50 percent” he stated.

The first pause in interest rate hikes since Cardoso took office in September 2023.

This comes as economists and financial experts have, in the last months, called for an interest rate pause.

The Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise has been championing a call for a pause in the nation’s interest rate hike.

Recall that on Tuesday, National Bureau of Statistics announced that Nigeria’s headline and food inflation rate dropped to 24.48 percent and 26.08 percent in January from 34.80 percent and 39.93 percent in December last year.