The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has forewarned that if precautionary measures are not put in place by the Federal Government to mitigate the challenges faced by the sector,  most manufacturers will close shop in January.
President of MAN, Mansur Ahmed, gave the warning at a workshop  organised by the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria in Lagos, where he spoke on the theme  “Effects of the COVID-19 on the Country’s Manufacturing Sector.”
Ahmed, who was represented by the acting Director-General, MAN, Ambrose Oruche, noted that the manufacturing sector had been in ‘near death’ situation before the COVID-19 pandemic set in.
He noted that manufacturers were confronted with a lot of challenges which were aggravated  by the invasion of COVID 19, ranging  from low inflow difficulty to access forex to import their raw materials and machinery, coupled with increasing demurrage   at the ports, poor infrastructure and more.
He said if not addressed, these challenges could  lead to dire consequences, folding up most manufacturing  companies.
Appreciating the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) for its intervention funds for the real sector, he emphasised that many members could not access it, and those who did, could not buy machines for their production,
because of foreign exchange scarcity “and you know that most of our manufacturing depends on imported raw materials, spare parts and machineries.”
The MAN boss appealed to the CBN to prioritise allocation of foreign exchange as it did in 2016 and 2017 recession.
“Then, the CBN prioritised forex for  the manufacturing sector and that created growth as production came back to life.”
He also said the government had neglected the manufacturing sector by denying it the infrastructure requires to be competitive.
“I am saying that many of the manufacturing firms will not open their shops in January unless something drastic is done by the government to alleviate the severe challenges hindering the sector.
“There is need for intentional actions from the government to create an enabling environment that will enable investors to set up plants in Nigeria to manufacture industrial raw materials in a commercial quantity that can compete with the rest of the world,” Ahmed said.