6th Adeola Odutola Lecture: MAN’s Growing Industrial Policy Platform Draws Top Dignitaries
Lagos is once again at the centre of Nigeria’s industrial conversation as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, holds the sixth edition of the Adeola Odutola Lecture at the Lagos Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island.
The lecture, being held as part of MAN’s 54th Annual General Meeting, has brought together manufacturers, policymakers, business leaders, investors, development partners, diplomats and other stakeholders to examine how Nigeria can transform its industrial ambitions into sustainable economic growth.
This year’s lecture, taking place on Tuesday, October 6, is themed “Leveraging National Industrial Policy to Position Nigeria as Africa’s Industrial Hub.” It features Dr. Kandeh Kolleh Yumkella, former Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, as Distinguished Guest Speaker.
The choice of Yumkella gives this year’s gathering a strong international development perspective. With more than three decades of experience in international development, industrialisation, agriculture and energy transition, his participation brings a wider African and global dimension to the conversation about Nigeria’s manufacturing future.
But beyond the personalities at this year’s event, the Adeola Odutola Lecture has, over the years, grown into an important platform for confronting some of the issues that determine whether Nigerian businesses can produce, compete and create jobs.
Named after Chief Timothy Adeola Odutola, MAN’s founding President and a pioneer of indigenous Nigerian manufacturing, the lecture carries the legacy of a businessman whose industrial journey embodied the idea of producing in Nigeria for Nigerians and beyond. MAN records Odutola as its founding President, serving from 1971 to 1981.
The lecture series began in 2021, when African Development Bank President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, delivered the inaugural Adeola Odutola Lecture in Abuja on “Overcoming the Binding Constraints to Competitive Manufacturing for Intra-African Trade.”
The following year, the second edition featured industrialist Aliko Dangote, who used the platform to speak on Nigeria’s industrialisation journey and the need for investment in infrastructure and core industries. The event was held alongside MAN’s 50th Annual General Meeting.
By 2023, the platform had become an even broader conversation on Nigeria’s competitiveness under the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA. Former Minister of Finance and Industry, Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, delivered the third lecture on “Setting the Agenda for Competitive Manufacturing under the AfCFTA: What Nigeria Needs to Do.”
The fourth edition in 2024 continued the conversation around deliberate industrial development, with Africa Finance Corporation’s Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer, Sameh Shenouda, featuring in the programme. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu also attended the lecture, which focused on “The Imperatives of an Intentional Development of the Nigerian Manufacturing Sector.”
The fifth edition in 2025 moved the conversation further into local production and national procurement. Dangote used the platform to advocate effective implementation of the Federal Government’s Nigeria First policy, arguing for stronger preference for locally manufactured products.
That progression is perhaps one of the clearest signs of how the Adeola Odutola Lecture has grown bigger and better since its establishment. What started as a tribute to one of Nigeria’s industrial pioneers has developed into a recurring meeting point for ideas on infrastructure, competitiveness, AfCFTA, local content, industrial policy, energy, investment and the future of Nigerian manufacturing.
The growing profile of the event is also reflected in the calibre of personalities associated with it. This year’s programme lists President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as Special Guest of Honour, Senator John Owan Enoh, Minister of State for Industry, as Guest of Honour, while MAN President Otunba Francis Meshioye, OFR, serves as Chief Host.
The lecture is also taking place alongside MAN’s Made-in-Nigeria Exhibition, MiNE 2026, which features more than 100 exhibitors showcasing locally manufactured products and technologies. The exhibition is designed not merely as a display of products but as a platform for business connections, investment opportunities and stronger patronage of Nigerian-made goods.
For manufacturers who often operate under the weight of high production costs, infrastructure gaps, energy challenges, limited access to finance and intense competition from imported products, such conversations are more than ceremonial gatherings. They provide an opportunity to place the everyday realities of factories, workers, investors and consumers before policymakers.
And that human dimension remains central to MAN’s industrial advocacy: a stronger manufacturing sector means factories that can stay open, businesses that can expand, workers who can retain their jobs, young Nigerians who can find opportunities and consumers who can increasingly access quality products made within the country.
As the sixth Adeola Odutola Lecture unfolds, the gathering therefore represents more than another item on MAN’s annual calendar. It is another chapter in a growing conversation about how Nigeria can move from having industrial potential to building an economy capable of producing competitively for its own people and for the wider African market.
For an initiative named after one of Nigeria’s early industrial champions, the message remains remarkably consistent: the future of Nigerian manufacturing will ultimately be measured not only by the policies announced, but by what Nigerian factories produce, the jobs they create and the lives they improve.
Ukata News
