May 29: MAN wants FG to fix infrastructure

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) says there is urgent need to rehabilitate the deteriorated infrastructure to put the country on the path of sustainable growth and development

Its Director-General, Mr Segun Kadiri, gave the advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday while reviewing the performance of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Kadiri said that improved infrastructure would impact positively on productivity as well as enhance the standard of living of Nigerians.

He said that the recent measures taken by the Federal Government had improved GDP growth, enhanced investors’ confidence and gave hope of economic recovery.

The director-general said that government should build on these gains and focus on addressing issues hindering productivity to fast track recovery of the economy.

According to him, there is still the need to review the foreign exchange policy, especially the 41 items banned from the official foreign exchange market.

“Revisiting the list will revitalise industries that had to close shop because of absence of raw materials that are critical to their operations,” he said.

Kadiri also said that resolving the issue of inadequate power supply to industries would make the manufacturing sector more competitive and reduce cost of their outputs.

“MAN on its own supports a process that ensures better supply of power to its members by engaging private companies to provide embedded power supply to industrial clusters.

“This is an additional cost to operation which is not supposed to be because it would reflect in the price of goods,” Kadiri said.

According to him, for meaningful industrial development and employment creation, there must be access to credit at not more than five per cent interest rate to boost production.

“Specialised banks like Bank of Industry (BoI) and Development Bank of Nigeria need to be functional and be recapitalised to meet the credit needs of manufacturers.

“Not only for capital investment, but also for working capital especially for the small scale industries,” Kadiri said.

He urged the three tiers of government to address the issues of multiplicity of levies by harmonising and operationalising the process to ensure that levies would not be burdensome to manufacturers.

Kadiri said that the delay in 2017 budget passage had hindered planning among the business community.

He said that delayed passage and implementation of annual budgets often created uncertainties in the economy, stressing that resolution of this issue would improve planning, boost industrial activities and GDP growth.