By Dike Onwuamaeze
Members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and the Nigerian Association Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) have urged the federal government to set up industrial clinic that would enhance increased productivity by facilitating the reactivation of moribund industries in Nigeria.
They also harped on the importance of providing more support to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the agribusiness in order to tame food price inflation.
Both associations in separate statement stated that a deliberate support for the manufacturing sector was needed to guarantee improved productivity and tame the upward inflationary trend in the economy, which is propelled by too much money chasing few goods.
The Director General of the MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, stressed that, “there are quite a number of moribund industries in the country. There should be an industrial clinic to engender their resuscitation in order to boost output and ultimately achieve price reduction.
“It is evident that there is a strong relationship between manufacturing sector growth and inflation rate, just like exchange and interest rates.
“Therefore, in the immediate government should assist manufacturing productivity with credit at competitive price. This could be in the form of enhancing existing special credit windows or creating additional ones for this important sector of Nigerian economy.”
He added that government, in partnership with the manufacturers, should select strategic products for support, particularly those with high inter-industry linkage for backward, and intensify the drive for the resource-based industrialisation agenda.
The MAN described the news of rising inflation in a country that recently exited recession as worrisome, especially for the manufacturing sector that has remained in recession even after the country’s economy technically exited recession in the Q4 of 2020.
It said: “The current inflationary condition in Nigeria adversely affects the profitability of the manufacturing sector and is partly responsible for its weak competitiveness. The latter being a major contributor to the low-export penetration of goods manufactured in the country into the international market.
Speaking in the same vein, the Nigerian Association Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), said urgent steps should be taken to arrest the current inflationary trend in the country’s economy if the federal government’s aspiration to achieve 2.5 per cent economic growth this year would be realised.
The Director General of the NACCIMA, Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, said: “Steps must be taken by government to arrest the trend. In all of these, perhaps most important is the issue of insecurity. Business and productive activities only thrive in a safe and secured environment.
“An enduring solution must, therefore, be found to the problems of banditry and other sources of insecurity across the country.
“To address food inflation there must be significant improvement in the area of road infrastructure to facilitate movement of farm produce and goods across the country.
“This is to strengthen the food supply chain and reduce cost of transportation from the farm to the market. More support should also be given to the SMEs in the agribusiness sector as they are important in the quest to ensure food security and combat food inflation.”
The Director General and Chief Executive, Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), Dr. Dikko Umaru Radda, recently said Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country would henceforth be recognised by their turnover rather than asset base.
Furthermore, he had pointed out that under the reviewed National Policy on MSMEs, recently approved by the federal government, micro enterprises have been split into Nano/Homestead and Micro Enterprises.
Speaking at a media briefing on the reviewed framework, he said several reasons had justified the resolve to reclassify small business based on their turnover.
