The Managing Director of the Bank of Industry (BOI), Dr Olasupo Olusi, has underscored the imperative of industrial readiness as a critical defence objective, stressing its importance for national defence and security.
Olusi made the assertion at the National Defence College Course 34 inaugural lecture in Abuja, with the theme: “Optimising Capacity for Industrialisation and Socio-Economic Development in Africa”.
The BOI boss, who was the guest lecturer, highlighted the significance of industrial transformation for national defence and security.
He stated that local production capacity, spare-parts ecosystems, and maintenance depth should be treated as readiness indicators to be planned, tested, and reported.
”A nation that produces can protect; a continent that manufactures can lead,” he said.
Olusi outlined five imperatives for immediate and sustained action, including turning procurement into policy, championing technical skills, developing defence-linked industrial clusters, and fostering regional cooperation.
“Turn procurement into policy; use framework and off-take contracts to grow local suppliers for dual-use items such as textiles, cables, radios, IV fluids, and vehicle components.
“Establish factory-linked academies, apprenticeships, and joint laboratories with polytechnics and manufacturers, promoting competency-based training over certification,” he advised.
Olusi also called for anchoring at least one proximate industrial zone with reliable power, shared tool rooms, and testing facilities, ensuring access for vetted SMEs under secure protocols, as well as fostering regional cooperation.
He urged the participants to operate where discipline, logistics, and mission command are second nature, precisely the qualities required for industrial transformation.
“If our armed forces can secure a nation, our factories can surely sustain it.
“Lead with clarity, execute with discipline, partner with purpose, and let your course be remembered as the one that turned potential into performance,” he added.
He said that BOI has continued to deepen its capital base by leveraging various debt instruments on the international capital markets through Eurobonds, syndicated loans, and green finance instruments.
“These funds have strengthened our capacity to continually support enterprises with affordable, long-term financing in a sustainable manner,” he added.
According to him, BOI has sponsored several innovation hubs across the nation to ensure that industries are manned by a modern workforce.
“The Bank of Industry remains deeply committed to advancing industrialization, supporting projects that generate jobs, promote exports, enable import substitution, and contribute to sustainable national development.
“These efforts reflect one truth: development finance is not just about loans; it is about impact, sustainability, and transformation,” he said.
Speaking on African capacity and and potential, he said the continent possessed both the talent and resources to achieve rapid and sustainable industrial growth.
He said Africa’s industrial journey was not a matter of chance but of deliberate choice.
He urged governments, businesses and citizens to align their efforts toward building a resilient and competitive industrial base.
Olusi outlined a five-point pathway to industrial transformation anchored on different factors.
These he said included infrastructure and energy reforms, access to affordable long-term finance, investment in human capital, regional value-chain integration and strong institutional coordination.
“Industrialisation is not a miracle; it is a method. Progress is cumulative, not spontaneous.
“If we execute with patience, precision and persistence, Africa can move from a continent that consumes to one that produces and protects itself,” he said
According to him, what is required now is coordination, conviction, and continuity, the discipline to stay the course.
He said it also needed the leadership to inspire others, and the cooperation to make progress collective rather than isolated.
He called on the participants to lead with clarity, execute with discipline, partner with purpose, and let history record that in their time, Nigeria and Africa moved from potential to performance.
“A nation that produces can protect; a continent that manufactures can lead. Let history record that in your time, Nigeria and Africa moved from potential to performance,” he said.
The Commandant of Nigeria Defence College, Rear Admiral James Okosun, said that the college remained committed to its mission of academic excellence and leadership development.
Okosun said the college mission was also to develop future structures of strategic leaders equipped with the knowledge and expertise to leverage elements of national power in the dynamic defence and security environments.
”Our vision is to be a global centre of excellence for educating potential strategic leaders in the dynamic world and I am confident that through this lecture we will contribute to the achievement of this goal.
”The core values that guide us in the college are excellence, courage, patriotism, and integrity.
”We strive to uphold these values in all our endeavors and I am proud to say that they have been instrumental in shaping our history into what it is today.
”It is worth to say that the National Defence College of Nigeria has successfully graduated a total of 3,099 participants from 1990 to 2025, including 359 officers from allied countries,” he said.(NAN)