AfCTA won't be competitive without functional eastern ports - MAN
P ort Harcourt -- The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has said the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCTA, recently signed by President Muhammadu Buhari, will not be competitive for Nigeria when the eastern seaports are not revived and made to operate optimally.
Chairman, Rivers/Bayelsa branch of MAN, Sen. Adawari Pepple, who disclosed this at the 35th Annual General Meeting and Public Lecture of the association in Port Harcourt, specifically called for the revamping of Onne, Port-Harcourt, Warri and Calabar ports.
Speaking on the theme of the lecture, tagged "Redeeming our economic potentials through manufacturing," Pepple said every state in the country should have an industrial cluster, while also calling for a state of emergency to be declared in the nation's manufacturing sector.
He appealed to government at all levels to make it a policy to buy Nigerian goods and grow the industries, the economy and the naira, assuring that MAN as an association has a commitment to quality and high standards.
According to him, "The call to redeem our economic potentials through manufacturing would not have come at a better time than now when the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA, has just been ratified with the aim of opening the doors for influx of foreign products at the expense of made-in-Nigeria goods.
"We want basic facilities in this part of the country to be put in pace. Our ports should be put in order. AfCFTA will not be competitive and beneficial to manufacturers in this zone, except the eastern seaports are made viable. Otherwise we will keep on struggling to take our goods to Apapa port that is already overcongested.
"It is my desire that as we look into ways of redeeming our economic potentials through manufacturing, we will be able to recover and revamp critical industries in our nation."
Pepple also disclosed that for Nigeria to achieve rapid industrialisation, there must be deliberate policies to oriented the private corporate sectors to rapidly raise the level and diversity of manufactured products.