The chairman, South-East, Kaduna branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr Raymond Anyanwu, has highlighted the challenges facing the manufacturing sector in Nigeria, saying most companies are fighting for survival instead of creating jobs and making profit.
Speaking at the public session of the Annual General Meeting of the association in Kaduna, he said, “Some of the major challenges facing manufacturers in recent times include; the instability, inaccessibility and high cost of the foreign exchange rate to purchase raw materials and spare parts, as well as difficulty in accessing credit facilities from financial institutions owing to numerous and some near impossible conditions, and high interest rates.
“Others are lack of patronage from the government, high cost of electricity and unreliability of it. The new tariff approved by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for the DisCos has caused great discomfort for members as the cost of production has at least doubled for most manufacturers and the outages continue to cause losses of raw materials and man-hours.
Also, the president of the association, Otunba Francis Meshioye and other speakers at the event stressed the need for the government to subsidise electricity for the manufacturing sector, address the challenges of multiple taxation, insecurity and make policies for government and citizens to patronise made in Nigeria products.
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