An umbrella body for indigenous cable manufacturing companies, Cable Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (CAMAN), has urged relevant agencies of government to work hard to attract more foreign exchange earnings into the country.
CAMAN said that the manufacturing sector in Nigeria is heavily reliant on imports of raw materials and faces a great scarcity of forex. In order to become competitive in the industry around the globe, cable makers need more support to continue to keep the industry standards.
In an interview with newsmen, the recently elected president of the organisation, Bukola Adubi pinpointed sub-standard and inferior cable brands, failure to implement local content laws and non-existent executive orders by some agencies of government including the scarcity of experienced hands in the industry as problems facing manufacturers in the industry.
She said several millions of naira are estimated to be lost every year to inferior or substandard cables in the market.
Adubi asked the Nigerian government to support CAMAN by making the clearance of raw materials at the posts easier by providing grants and funding for the upgrade of machinery as well as making provisions for better infrastructure available in the rural areas where the materials are transported from.
She made a case for a duty waiver on raw materials for CAMAN, describing it as a product of financing and competitiveness, saying that if an accredited manufacturer is given a waiver on their raw materials, it will make them competitive and enable them to be able to compete with Asian other European imports.
Read also: Power supply: Gencos refute TCN report, says FG’s N1.6trn debt frustrating power generation
Making a case for duty waiver on raw materials for CAMAN, Adubi described duty waiver as an offshoot of financing and competitiveness, adding that if an accredited manufacturer is given a waiver on their raw materials, it will make them competitive and enable them to be able to compete with Asian and other European imports.
To deepen local content across industries in Nigeria, the President Muhammadu Buhari led government had signed Executive Order 3 (EO3) and Executive Order 5 (EO5) in 2017 and 2018 respectively.
Speaking on how the EO3 and EO5, as well as the local content laws have aided the operations of cable manufacturers, she commended the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for its efforts in the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) act and encouraged other bodies like the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), and Rural Electrification Agency (REA), among others to follow suit.
With the support from the oil & gas industry, Adubi who is also the Chief Executive Officer of MicCom Cables said that she expects CAMAN member companies to expand capacity by 100 percent across board within the next 3 – 5 years.
CAMAN member companies include Bracon wires & Cables, Coleman Wires & Cables, Cometstar Manufacturing Company Ltd, Cutix Plc, Denki Wires & Cables, and Geolis Cables Ltd. Others are Kabelmetal Nig Ltd, MicCom Cables & Wires Ltd, Nigerchin Elect. Dev. Co, Nocaco Ltd, and Purechem Cables & Wires.
