The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has flayed its inability to adequately contribute to the economy due to prevailing infrastructural and policy challenges.
The Director-General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who made this known in an interview with New Telegraph in Lagos, said that MAN was committed to to supporting and collaborating with government and other stakeholders to unlock the immense potential embedded in the economy Ajayi-Kadir explained that the manufacturing sector had continued to grapple with persistent issues of high production costs, forex scarcity and rate instability, infrastructural deficiency, low patronage, stiff regulatory hurdles, multiple layers of taxes, negative perception of made-in-Nigeria products, among others.
According to him, these challenges have limited the Association’s capacity to innovate, expand, create more jobs and contribute meaningfully to the overall performance of the economy While dissecting the challenges, the MAN director general pointed out that high interest rate, high inflation and unstable exchange rates were anti-business, fueling manufacturing production costs.
He added that high borrowing costs hindered industries from getting access to finance, particularly Small, Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), which bear the brunt the most. Ajayi-Kadir said: “It’s no joke that foreign manufacturing companies are exiting the Nigerian market, including Kimberly Clark, P&G, Guinness etc.”
On the negative perception of Made-In-Nigeria products, the MAN boss noted that apart from high production costs, another challenge facing the manufacturing sector was the negative perception about the quality and reliability of made-in-Nigeria products, saying “this is damaging the brand and image of our products both at the local and international markets.
It is time we start to build confidence and have trust in ourselves in our country, and in what we produce.” On the low patronage of made-in-Nigeria products by the government and lack of compliance with Executive Orders 003 and 005, the MAN helmsman stated: “The patronage of products made-in-Nigeria remains low and discouraging.
There is a need for general compliance with executive orders 003 and 005, which can be achieved by establishing an institutional framework for monitoring and evaluation of its implementation. MAN should be part of this exercise.”
Ajayi-Kadir, while talking about categorisation of industrial gas users and inadequate supply of gas to manufacturing facilities, especially in the northern part of the country, he said: “In this regard, we strongly advocate for government recategorisation of manufacturers as strategic users of gas and increase gas supply.
“Most of these challenges are perennial issues the manufacturing sector has been struggling with for over the years and we strongly advocate that an intentional government effort should be made to address them.
We reassure of our readiness to collaborate in all such efforts as being part of the implementation process.”
