‘Manufacturers spend N500b annually to run plants’

The Managing Director, Arewa Metal Containers Limited, Engineer Daudu Joachim has observed that manufacturers have spent an estimated N500 billion annually to run and maintain their power plants,

Speaking in a paper he presented at the monthly meeting of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) Kaduna State Branch in Kaduna titled: “Survival of the Manufacturing Sector in Nigeria’s Depressed Economy”, he said the high cost of sourcing US Dollar has made it very difficult for companies to bring in raw materials.

He pointed out that the Nigerian economy has remained and continued to remain un-favourable to businesses in the manufacturing sector saying, inadequate and poor infrastructure has also continued to wield severe pressure on operating cost, competiveness and efficiency.

He added, “Manufacturing sector declined at a faster rate in June 2016. Manufacturing PMI [Purchasing Managers Index] dropped to 41.9% in June 2016 compared to 45.8 in May 2016. 14 sub-sectors of the 16 manufacturing subsectors declined in the month [ACCI]. “Manufacturing PMI in Nigeria averaged 48.23 from September 2014 to March 2017, reaching an all-time high of 54.0 in September of 2014 and a record low of 41.90 in June of 2016 [Fig.1]. “The PMI reflects the economic health of the manufacturing sector based on five major indicators: new orders, inventory levels, production, supplier deliveries and the employment environment.”