•Says AfCFTA can either expand or jeopardise Nigeria’s economy
Dike Onwuamaeze
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), yesterday, declared that its members were passing through a critical time due to the prevailing petrol scarcity, cash crunch, shortage of foreign exchange and power supply in the country.
The MAN also warned that the government should be deliberate in promoting Nigeria’s manufacturing sector because the operation of the African Continental Free Trade Area’s (AfCFTA) has the capacity to either expand the Nigeria economy for good or limit and jeopardise it.
The association highlighted these points in Ikeja, Lagos State, during its “2023 Media Luncheon with MAN President.”
The president of MAN, Mr. Francis Meshioye, said: “We are facing scarcity of fuel, diesel, energy, currency that are abstract infrastructures that will enable proper manufacturing. We have spoken to the current government and have expressed this to leading presidential candidates and political parties.
“We are expecting that by the time the new government comes in on May29, it will be necessary among other things to look into the manufacturing sector especially on issues around forex supply that set the tone on how we (manufacturers) really determine the prices of our products because currently we cannot even budget effectively.
“It also hinders the possibility of any investor to bring in foreign money to invest in Nigeria. And actually it frightens the existing manufacturers to engage and do the business effectively. So these costs from abstract infrastructure need to be addressed so that we can really be able to work ahead.
“Continentally, it is important to determine the rule of origin properly to avoid dumping, which will be very bad for manufacturers.
“I want to believe that the cash crunch will be a very short term problem. However, there is no way that any scarcity of very essential things to consumers that will not affect the producers. We feel it because it hinders proper flow of our goods to the end users. What effect is it going to have on the piled stock? It means your cash is trapped while you are paying high interest rate; then we won’t make good returns.
“But investment goes to where it makes good returns regularly. It is a very big issue on our economy now. So, we are really facing a critical time as manufacturers now.”
Speaking in the same vein, the Director General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, harped on the need to make the manufacturing environment more conducive to ensure that the sector, which has been acknowledged as a key sector for national growth and development, would continue to contribute its due quota to the country’s GDP and wellbeing of average Nigerians.
Ajayi-Kadir said: “There is no doubt that manufacturing is key to national development and now that we have entered the AfCFTA, it is important that manufacturing leads the process of ensuring that we produce what we trade in the continental market.
“Otherwise we will unwittingly create a 1.4 billion people market only for Asia, America and Europe to take advantage of it. That will not be good for our national development and continental integration economically.
“It is very important to be talking about the AfCFTA. It promises to open opportunities for our economy and at the same time it can even limit, if not jeopardise our economy.”
He added that the fillers that the MAN is getting from its members showed that manufacturing is becoming an endangered undertaking.
He said: “We are boldly saying that manufacturing is not like ordinary business endavours. It is a deliberate choice that every country has to make since there is no country in the world that has become prosperous and developed without a virile manufacturing sector.
“The service sectors have limitation in the number of people they can engage. So, manufacturing needs to be prioritised and for us it is a decision that Nigeria has to make.”
