By Merit Ibe
The impact of foreign exchange, energy crises and other challenges faced by the manufacturing sector, drastically reduced real sector’s output growth from 5.8 percent in Q1 to 3.0 percent in Q2 2022.
The Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, made the remark at the 2022 annual workshop/ awards organised by the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN), yesterday with the theme: “Manufacturing: Despite FX and Energy Crisis.”
The Ajayi-Kadir lamented the high forex, inflation rate, high interest rate, price of diesel and gas price, high expenditure on alternative energy, which he said have caused oscillatory growth, low contribution to the GDP, sub- optimal capacity utilisation, high inventory of unsold manufactured goods and declining investment.
The DG said it was important therefore, that forex and energy as well as other manufacturing challenges, are adequately addressed to arrest further degeneration in the performance of the sector. This, he said can be achieved by allocating significant proportion of available foreign exchange to the productive sector, particularly manufacturing; Carrying out further investment in the electricity value chain and commit to adding 10000MW to the current electricity distributed in the country, embracing and supporting significant development of energy mix and renewable; expanding the scope of Road Infrastructure, development and refurbishment investment and tax credit scheme, among others.
Despite these challenges faced by manufacturers, the DG said the primary driving force for sustaining production is the patriotism and resilience that the Nigerian manufacturers possesses.
On his part, President of the association, Charles Okonji encouraged the members to continue to support the association.
The high point of the event was presentation of awards.
Other speakers at the event included Ikpong Umoh, managing director, Stellarchem Nigeria Ltd ; Director General of NACCIMA, Chief John Udeagbala; Mr John Ajayi, MD CEO, Marketing Edge; Dr Muda Yusuf, CEO, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE), and Victor Opara SAN, among others.