Jonathan Eze
The President, Manufacturers association of Nigeria (MAN), Ahmed Mansur, has stressed the need for backward integration policies to encourage manufacturers to locally source for their inputs.
This, he said would reduce cost in the supply chain and support the federal government’s drive for economic diversification.
Addressing a press conference in collaboration with Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) and Clarion Event West Africa (CEWA) on the 2019 Nigeria manufacturing and equipment expo, MAN urged stakeholders, the organised private sector and global suppliers along the value chain in the raw material sector to synergise and trade directly with its industrial aspirations.
Mansur noted that “Although the Nigerian economy has been largely dependent on oil, the latest report from the national bureau of statistics recorded greater growth from the non-oil sector in terms of addition to the economy than we saw in the oil sector in terms of growth rate,” while urging manufacturers to reduce the cost of production by locally sourcing for raw materials and make their products competitive, efficient and largely productive.
He added that if this happens on a continuous basis the economy will grow because the economy is the aggregate of products of services.
Mansur, said the exhibition which would hold between March 12th and 14th, 2019, in Lagos, was being organised in partnership with RMRDC to promote the manufacturing sector in Nigeria by encouraging the improved use of raw materials in the country.
The expo is expected to make significant impact on the Nigerian economy by providing opportunity for over 3,700 manufacturers and manufacturing equipment distributors to evaluate the latest manufacturing equipment, machine tools, technologies, spare parts and manufacturing raw materials that are on display by over 120 leading local and international suppliers from France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Indonesia, South Africa, India and Nigeria.
The event, targeted at Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and intending entrepreneurs would equip them with information on new processes and ways of boosting their production output, supply chain, improving product quality, reducing cost and manufacturing for new markets.
According to the MAN President, the overall goal of the exhibition was to promote agriculture, mining, manufacturing and pharmaceuticals in Nigeria as well as promote raw material research conducted by the federal government to advance local processing of raw materials into finished goods.
Also speaking at the event, the Director of Investment and Consultancy Services, Department of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Dr. Zainab Hamanga, said the interest of RMRDC in the exhibition was to see improvement in import substitution in the country as some of the raw materials being sourced abroad abound in Nigeria.
Hamanga said some locally sourced materials are of superior quality compared to the imported ones but noted that Nigerians have more taste for imported goods than locally sourced ones.
