MAN: Tinubu’s Administration Preparing Nigeria’s First Industrial Policy

•Says manufacturing sector has N5tn financing need

Dike Onwuamaeze

The Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has commenced the process of developing Nigeria’s first industrial policy.

Ajayi-Kadir disclosed this yesterday on Arise News TV when he spoke on the state of the Nigerian industrial sector, which he said has a N5 trillion funding need. 

He said: “Basically, there are quite a number of things that the government needs to do to boost the industrial sector. As a matter of fact this current administration has started some of them.

“For instance, for the first time in the history of Nigeria we are going to have an industrial policy, which basically signposts all that is needed to be done for the country to industrialise.

“The Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Industry, Senator John Owan Enoh, is actually championing the industrial policy for Nigeria and stakeholders are being engaged and there has been a widespread consideration of the initial draft of the industrial policy.”

He also said that the government needed to have policy interventions particularly for the segments of the manufacturing sector that have potentials for high impacts like textiles, agro processing and pharmaceuticals for instance.

“So the government needs to enable a process that allows us to scale in those areas and even be able to export,” he said.

The director general of MAN also highlighted the need for an improved regulatory environment in such a way that regulation is used to support economic growth and scale and not a situation where a regulator could become a bottleneck to ease of doing business in the country.

Ajayi-Kadiri stated that MAN is not canvassing for any form of subsidy for its members from the government having been one of the voices that agitated for the removal of subsidies.

He said: “What we are asking for are specific interventions, for instance in the cost of power. We believe, particularly for industrial zones, there should be an effort from the government to reduce the cost of power. The 250 per cent increase that we had in electricity is way too high but conversation is still ongoing.”

He also spoke on some binding constraints that have been hindering the productivity of the country’s manufacturers, which the government is already aware of.

One of these binding constraints, according to him, is the yet to be cleared foreign exchange forward transactions of $2.4 billion that have dragged for two full years now at the detriment of manufacturing businesses.

“Then we have access to credit. The N75 billion that was given recently has been fully disbursed by the Bank of Industry. And we are awaiting the N1 trillion stabilisation fund.

“The government should speed up the process of disbursing this fund to manufacturers because we actually have N5 trillion financing needed for the manufacturing sector as stated by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). But, at least let us start with the N1 trillion,” Ajayi-Kadir said.

He also noted that the North-eastern part of Nigeria was still contending with a security challenge that has led to closing of many industries in the area, which need government intervention to contain so that industrial firms could come back to production.

He also said that the Industrial Revolution Working Group, which is being promoted by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, is serving as an effective platform to table and discuss issues affecting the industrial sector.

He, however, emphasised that speedy implementations of measures that could address these binding constraints is urgently needed in order for the country to achieve its aspiration for a $1 trillion economy.

Ajayi-Kadir also clarified that the recently concluded rebasing of the Nigerian economy was a worthwhile exercise because “we all wanted a situation where we can correctly reflect the true position of Nigeria’s economy.

“Nigeria is a big economy and rebasing has shown that the economy has the capacity to grow,” he stated.