Poor Govt Policy Execution Keeps Capacity Utilisation Below 50%- MAN
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has lamented that the lack of government’s commitment to policy execution has kept the country’s manufacturing sector performing at less than 50 percent of its installed capacity.
According to him, successive governments in the country had declared their intention to grow domestic production, but failed to show adequate interest in the growth of the manufacturing sector.
Ajayi-Kadir emphasized that the growth of the sector has been stunted either by the lack of total commitment to put policy into action by the government or by the sector being crowded out in terms of priorities.
“As a result of these factors, the manufacturing sector in Nigeria has continued to perform at less than 50 percent of its installed capacity,” he added.
Also speaking at the event, President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, emphasized the need for the government to support local manufacturing, noting that this is “more effective than travelling abroad to beg for foreign investments”.
Dangote also stressed the need for the federal government to give maximum support to small businesses in the country to enable them survive against dumping of foreign products.
His words: “What attracts foreign investment is domestic investment. No domestic investments, no foreign investments.
“So, we have to make sure that we support our domestic investors.
“I went to two places on Wednesday and I was a bit angry. I wanted to eat snacks and all the biscuits that I was given in these two different places were made in China, which is wrong.
“If we are consuming made in China biscuits, it means that we are actually creating jobs in China and creating poverty here.
“So, we need to have proper support for domestic industries.”
Meanwhile, the federal government has advised manufacturers to continue to dialogue with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to resolve the unsettled foreign exchange (FX) forward transaction claims.
Recall that the CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, earlier in the year, had announced that all valid outstanding FX backlog claims had been settled, noting however that about $2.4 billion in FX transactions could not be settled because they were unverified.
But MAN raised objections to the apex bank’s claim of the unverified transactions, noting that many manufacturers have been affected by the yet unresolved FX backlog.
Speaking on the imbroglio, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, advised MAN other affected parties to continue dialoguing with CBN to resolve the matter.
He said: “There is a related matter that MAN raised that has to do with the backlog of unpaid transactions regarding the supply of FX.
