The Agricultural Machinery and Equipment Fabricators Association of Nigeria (AMEFAN) has appealed to the Federal Government to assist it with soft loans to boost the production capacity of indigenous fabricators.
The President of the association, Mr Kola Adeniji, made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Abuja.
Adeniji said that high cost of machines required in fabrication factories made it imperative for the Federal Government to provide soft loans to enable fabricators acquire modern machines.
“Fabricators are very important to development of the economy because they contribute to industrialisation.
“It is when you are able to fabricate that you can actually sustain other sectors.
“The government needs to use its influence to direct the financial sector to look into what fabrication factories are doing, so that they can assist them to buy modern machines which are expensive.
“When you look at some of the fabricating factories most of the machines we are using now are outdated and most of the modern machines available are very expensive.
“Government should make arrangement for us to get some grant or loans for our members to buy some of the modern machines that we use in fabrication,” he said.
Adeniji explained that AMEFAN had signed agreement with the Federal Institute for Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) for standardisation and certification of indigenous fabrications.
According to him, such arrangement will help build the capacity of local fabricators for production of standard machines that are suitable for the indigenous investors.
“We are trying to move away from the era of people just making machines without knowing the ratings and the production capacity.
“We are partnering FIIRO and SON for standardisation and certification of locally made equipment.
“We will organise training and retraining for our engineers and fabricators.
“We are trying to separate different categories of machines from one another and to actually rate all those equipment to know their evaluation and profitability,” he said.
The AMEFAN president urged the government to encourage the patronage of locally made fabrications so as to boost production of more efficient machines for the nation’s cottage industries.