Successive administrations in Nigeria have initiated one policy or the other aimed at advancing the economy through industrialization. In spite of these industrialization policies, Nigeria is still at the bottom rung of development ladder as the industrial sector which was at a time contributing about 13 per cent to the GDP, and second largest employer of labour is now in comatose. Currently the productive sector is contributing only 4 per cent to the nation’s GDP. Many industries are collapsing largely due to defective trade policies, poor infrastructures, corruption, and pressure of globalization on Nigerian economy among others. The paper is aimed at re-emphasizing the important role of industrialization in achieving developmental policies, especially Vision20:2020.data collected was derived from documents and were analysed using the content analysis method. This paper is premised on the fact that the active labour force and the abundance natural resources which are keys to industrialization are underutilized. Many Asian countries popularly referred to as Asian-Tigers that are revered today attained such status through industrialization by encouraging their local –home grown cottage industries. The paper contends that if Nigeria must attain real economic development, then there is the need to fundamentally redefine her industrialization efforts and policies. Thus, the paper believes that what is required is a genuine political-will to fight corruption. There is also the need to improve the physical infrastructures in other to create an enabling environment that will encourage both large scale industries and SMEs to grow among others.

Development, Economic Development, Industrial Development, Industrialization