David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi

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In a bid to fast-track industrial development especially in the manufacturing sector in Anambra State, the  International Finance Corporation (IFC), Country Private Sector Diagnostic, has tasked a team of the World Bank in collaboration with Anambra State Investment Promotion and Protection Agency (ANSIPPA), recently visited Cutix Plc on a mission of industrial promotion in Anambra.
The agenda of the visiting agencies, according to leaders of the team included to assess the challenges of the manufacturers and see the possible way they could be assisted through providing advisory and, perhaps, financial help for their sustainable growth.
Leader of the ANSIPPA team and the Executive Director of the agency, Dr Ifediora Amobi, said they came with the IFC task team from its Lagos office to study manufacturing businesses within Onitsha, Nnewi and other places across the state to be able to understand how they do businesses with a view to assisting them.
He said he was satisfied with what the team saw at Cutix Plc and gave the impression that the company has a big prospect in the manufacturing sector and should be assisted in any way possible.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mrs Ijeoma Oduonye, said that Cutix Plc had been in the market since 1984 as cables manufacturers. She presented its score card to have consistently won the NIS quality certificate award of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) in gold, silver and bronze categories since 2003, 1998 and 1995, respectively.
However, Mrs Oduonye articulated the company’s challenges to include allocation of forex for importation of raw materials, unstable power supply and insufficient working capital. She also added that high interest rate and difficulty in accessing Bank of Industry (BOI) loans had been a source of worry to the company.
She noted that the BOI was primarily established by the Federal Government to aid indigenous companies in Nigeria to access loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria at low interest rates but regretted that the reverse had been the case as these companies, according to her, find it difficult to access the loan.
The company, she said, is currently faced with the difficulty in getting bank guarantee from commercial banks to enable it access the BOI loan for purchase of raw materials to increase production.