Charles Nwaoguji
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has created digital data base which would provide single trusted source of primary data required to conduct due diligence checks on counterparties in Africa to weather the storm of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The President of MAN, Mansur Ahmed, said that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the status quo in many aspects which has affected the manufacturing sector.
Ahmed, who stated this at the 49th Annual General Meeting, said that the platform is positioned as a centralised go to platform for fulfilling Client Due Diligence (CDD) and know your customer (KYC) requirements throughout the African continent. He noted that the digital platform would enables African financial institutions; corporate and SMEs to meet expectations of business partners and prospective investors who are interested in doing business in Africa and desirous of credible organisations to partner across any country in Africa.
He said, “It opportunities for companies to attract foreign investment and for those interested in selling their businesses, the opportunity to increase potential of the new owners. The secretariat has therefore commenced work on populating the platform with member-companies details in order to benefit from what the platform offers.” He stated that other efforts they are making was to ensure that manufacturing companies remain afloat include: Advocacy for more stimulus and intervention measures from the government to manufacturers to cushion the effect of the pandemic, looting and destruction by hoodlums who hijacked the Endsars protest and other myriad of challenges facing manufacturers.