Nigeria’s Manufacturing Sector Dying —MAN Chairman

The Chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ikeja branch, Rev. Isaac Agoye, says the nation’s manufacturing sector is on the throes of death and will witness total collapse if the government continues to deny it the enabling environment.

Rev. Agoye disclosed this at the MAN, Ikeja branch’s Annual General Meeting which was held at the Lagos Airport Hotel yesterday.

The chairman, who did not mince words while listing out the challenges facing the sector, said so far, over 1, 000 manufacturing industries have closed shop. He said most of these companies have now been turned to worship centres while others have become event centres.

“The capacity utilisation has nosedived from 70 per cent in the 1980s to 45 per cent in 2010. The ever busy industrial estates have now become shadows of their past glories and what government at all levels keep saying indirectly is that they need more funds and the manufacturing sector must provide it without a commensurate provision of the required enabling environment.

“Our universities are churning out thousands of graduates without the means of gainful employment, the level of abject poverty in the land has deepened, the degree of insecurity has become unprecedented simply because we have failed to bring the manufacturing sector out of the woods.

“At 51 years of our nationhood, the question on the minds of many operators remains whether it is too complex to understand that no nation can be tagged developed without a viral manufacturing sector and whether it is too difficult to make Nigeria have constant, quality electricity supply,” he noted.

He said it was disheartening to remember that the manufacturing sector in the country did not fare well in 2010 as usual due to environmental and operational challenges.

The chairman also wondered if the manufacturing sector in the next 20 years can close the gap of advancement with the “Asian Tigers.”

He said a possible solution to the many questions about the country is for the manufacturing sector to be given the opportunity to thrive and live up to its bidding as a catalyst for employment generation.

He further said there is need for the government to urgently act in ways that would make the country attractive for investors.

Rev. Agoye stressed that though MAN is in support of President Goodluck Jonathan’s transformation agenda for the country, some of the ways the President can succeed include building more refineries through public/private sector partnership, efficiently run existing ones and stoppage of fuel importation, which naturally would have multiple negative effects on other sectors of the economy.

He also tasked President Jonathan to accelerate the building of infrastructures like roads, railways, waterways, discourage importation of products that can be produced in Nigeria, provide adequate power supply to aid the manufacturing sector and work on the current tax system

The event was witnessed by stakeholders in the manufacturing sector, state and federal government officials including a representative of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.

—Eromosele Ebhomele