The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) have called on the Federal Government and concerned agencies to fix the energy crisis and foreign exchange that have militated manufacturing indicators.
The Director-General, MAN, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, gave the charge at the Annual Conference and Workshop of Commerce and Industry Correspondent Association of Nigeria (CICAN) in Lagos.
While speaking at the event themed “Manufacturing: Despite FX and Energy Crisis”.The Director-General noted that the Major challenges of inadequate foreign exchange and energy crisis dipped the manufacturing growth output from 5.8 per cent in the first quarter of 2022 to 3.0 per cent in the second quarter.According to him, these challenges massively affected manufacturers that were already confronted by an unpleasant operating environment, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the current Russian-Ukrainian war.
He said that manufacturing indicators such as capacity utilisation, contribution to real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) investment, employment, cost of production, competitiveness among others were also negatively impacted.
He added that with the limited foreign exchange inflow from crude oil sales, foreign exchange demand pushed over the bounds of supply and contributed to the depreciation in Naira value.
Segun Ajayi-Kadir stressed that the challenges must be adequately addressed to arrest further degeneration in the performance of the sector.
“In doing that, we consider the following measures critical such as the allocation of a significant proportion of available foreign exchange to the productive sector, particularly manufacturing.
“Further investment in the electricity value chain must be carried out and the government must commit to adding 10,000 MW to the current electricity distributed in the country.
“Also, we must embrace and support significant development of renewable energy mix as the country has huge potentials for solar and wind,” he said.
Ajayi-Kadir added that the scope of road infrastructure should be expanded and the tax credit scheme developed and refurbished.
Highpoint of the event featured presentation of Award to Alhaji Akiko Dangote, a business mogul and Chief Executive of Dangote Group of Companies received the revolutionising manufacturing in Africa awards, while Mr Anthony Chiejina, Group Chief, Branding and Communication Officer, Dangote Group, received the corporate communications expert of the decade award and many other Awardees.
