The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has identified the high cost of power, foreign exchange, and insecurity as the major challenges facing the manufacturing sector in Nigeria.
Chairman Southeast Kaduna Branch of MAN, Raymond Anyanwu who stated this at the public session of the annual general meeting of the association in Kaduna lamented that most companies are currently fighting for survival instead of creating jobs and making a profit.
He said: “Some of the major challenges facing manufacturers in recent times include; the instability, inaccessibility, and high cost of the foreign exchange rate to purchase raw materials and spare parts, as well as difficulty in accessing credit facilities from financial institutions owing to numerous and some near impossible conditions, and high interest rates.
“Others are; lack of patronage from the government, high cost of electricity and unreliability of it. The new tariff approved by NERC for the discos has caused great discomfort for members as the cost of production has at least doubled for most manufacturers and the outages continue to cause losses of raw materials and man hours.
“Insecurity has continued to slow investment in our zone as investors are too afraid to come, and raw materials for mostly our members in the agro-allied sector continue to be scarce. Multiple taxation and upward review of taxes continues to be a problem for our members,” he stressed.
Also, the President of the association, Otunba Francis Meshioye, and other speakers at the event stressed the need for the government to subsidize electricity for the manufacturing sector, address the challenges of multiple taxation, insecurity and make policies for government and citizens to patronize made-in-Nigeria products.
In his address to the AGM, Kaduna state governor, Senator Uba Sani who was represented by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Barrister James Kanyip said, the government recognizes the importance of a thriving manufacturing sector to the economy and is committed to creating an enabling environment that supports the growth and success of the sector.
According to the governor: “Our administration is focused on improving infrastructure, ensuring a stable and business-friendly environment, and implementing policies that facilitate ease of doing business.”
However, a public affairs analyst who served as the guest speaker, Mohammed Garba, said that there was no need for any Nigerian citizen to (japa) migrate out of the country in search of greener pastures.
Garba, a former lecturer with Kaduna Polytechnic said, Nigeria is no doubt the global economic capital, but what the country needs to do to take its rightful pride of place, is to focus on manufacturing.
He then maintained that manufacturing is the solution to the myriad of problems confronting Nigerians.
