By Festus Obot
In a determined move to reinvent and reposition itself to remain the foremost institution of choice across national, regional and global raw materials ecosystem, the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) gathered top management staff and former Directors of the Council for a three-day intensive Management Retreat from December 17-19, 2025 in Abuja.
Welcoming participants to the retreat with the theme: “Future Proofing RMRDC: Strategic Foresight and Import Substitution Leadership”, the Director General of the Council, Professor Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso charged them to see the retreat as a moment of truth for the Council. He emphasized that he expects the retreat to come up with far-reaching recommendations that will chart the way forward for RMRDC to not only regain its past glory but also strategically reposition the Council to become a regional and continental leader in the global raw materials ecosystem.
Prof Ike-Muonso further reminded participants that though the Council had made valuable contributions to national industrial development, it has nonetheless, not performed at its fullest potential as envisaged by the founding fathers of the Council. He stressed that critical aspects of the Council’s mandate which have been relegated are the import substitution and industrial competitiveness programmes of RMRDC. The DG noted that going forward and as a priority, the Council’s import substitution and competitiveness programmes will receive the required attention. According to Prof Ike-Muonso, the import substitution and competitiveness programmes are the most important provisions of the Council’s mandate with the potential to fully transform the economic and industrial landscape of the country as well as save huge forex bill expended on import of raw materials for which Nigeria enjoys both comparative and competitive advantage.
In a communiqué at the end of the retreat, participants unanimously agreed that “the Council was created primarily to address manufacturers’ raw materials challenges and foreign exchange pressures arising from import dependence. They reiterated the fact that “import substitution and industrial competitiveness are therefore central and not peripheral to RMRDC’s mandate”.
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The communiqué, among other far-reaching recommendations, emphasized that there was a need to create a directorate of competitiveness and import substitution in the Council as a strategy to provide the needed impetus to respond to prevailing economic realities as well as demonstrate leadership in Nigeria’s industrial development Agenda.
The 3-day retreat closed with participants recommending a deepening of existing collaborations with industry, research institutions, and relevant MDAs while avoiding mandate duplication and unhealthy competition.
