Manufacturers call for improved power supply

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) says it looks forward to improved power generation and distribution in the
country.

The Director-General of MAN, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Tuesday.

“The performance of any government on power is very important to us. I think generally, you will agree with me that we are not there yet in terms of provision of power.

“However, we have seen some noticeable movements toward sustaining some level of performance.

“Recently, we had what government termed as 2,000 MW of power that is in a way stranded.

“They were trying to look for an opportunity to engage us under the Eligible Customers’ Scheme to be able to access the power. We are still discussing.

“I think if government pursues this assiduously, it should be able to augment the level of supply that we have if the impediment to our accessing it is removed.

“By and large, we still suffer inadequacy of power, especially reaching out to industries that are far-flung from the major areas like Lagos, Port Harcourt, and so on and so forth.

“Generally speaking, even though we have more supplies now, distribution remains a challenge.

“Is an area that probably the last one year government should rein in on the reforms in the sector to be able to improve the power supply because it still remains our number one challenge.”

He said that there had been noticeable improvement in road infrastructure, adding, however, that the cost of transportation remained high.

Ajayi-Kadir explained that when the roads are bad, transporters would charge more.

He noted that it was a relief that the railways were being rehabilitated to boost the movement of goods across the country.

Ajayi-Kadir also said that the gridlock at the ports since the beginning of the year had taken its toll on the manufacturing sector.

He said that it took between a week or two weeks to get goods out of the ports, adding that manufacturers had been finding it difficult to pick raw materials.

The director-general lamented the high interest rate charged by commercial banks.

“MAN has always maintained and seriously too that if you borrow a manufacturer fund, at anything more than five per cent, you are really not doing any help.

“Gone are the days when you talk of single digit. Single digit more than five per cent is not good because you know manufacturing has a long gestation period.

“And because of the inadequacy of infrastructure and the macro-economic environment in which we operate, it will be very difficult for a manufacturer to make anything meaningful out of funds borrowed at more than five per cent.

Ajayi-Kadir called for the recapitalisation of the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the effective take-off of the Development Bank of Nigeria.

He said that manufacturers were unable to borrow effectively from commercial banks because many commercial banks borrowed short-term and could not lend long.

The MAN boss said the recapitalisation of BOI would create more funds for working capital for manufacturers.

He praised the government for coming up with several initiatives like the Ease of Doing Business; Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) which took off from the industrial revelation plan.

Ajayi-Kadir said that the initiatives would ameliorate the challenges of the economy and focus on manufacturing.