Absence of core industries, policy inconsistencies crippling manufacturing – MAN

as Osinbajo assures caution on EPA

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said that non-availability of functional core industries such as iron and steel and petrochemical industries are militating against the manufacturing sector.

Frank Udemba Jacobs, president, MAN, said realising President  Muhammadu Buhari’s promises of job creation and economic development required addressing these and many other issues such as acute infrastructural deficiency, general insecurity, smuggling/unbridled importation  and dumping of cheap/substandard products as well as high cost of funds and inadequacy of long-term loan windows to support long gestation investments.

“There is the need to address policy inconsistency as well as tardy implementation of policies sometimes arising from lack of political will to follow through on good policies,” said Jacobs, during this year’s annual general meeting held Wednesday in Lagos.

“There is also the need to address irregular supply of industrial fuels arising from the epileptic operations of local refineries. Refineries should be privatised and the petroleum sector deregulated,” he said.

He underscored the need to address lack of patronage of made-in-Nigeria products by government ministries, departments and agencies, while suggesting that the policy of ‘Buy Made-in-Nigeria products’ be strictly enforced on all tiers of government.

“Suffice it to mention that the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union and West Africa will be very disadvantageous to the Nigerian economy, if signed in its present form, as it will not only retard and destroy the fledgling industrialisation of Nigeria but will orchestrate serious social challenges as a result of job losses and worsen unemployment situation,” he said.

Yemi Osinbajo, Nigeria’s vice-president, assured manufacturers that the government would not enter into any agreement that would  jeopardise the long-term interest of the country’s manufacturing sector.

“I think we need to be careful at this point of our development. It is also important for us to pay attention to what is happening around us,” Osinbajo said.

Thabo Mbeki, former South Africa’s president, who was at the event as the guest speaker, supported the position of Nigeria’s private sector that the EPA is not good for Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

”Obviously, given its size, Nigeria constitutes a large and important domestic market. The development of the necessary infrastructure is critical to ensuring that this develops as one integrated market. I believe that this is vital to the success of the industrialisation process in this country,” Mbeki said.