Chief executive officers (CEOs), top management executives of over 300 member companies and stakeholders have stressed the need for a strategic policy direction to tackle infrastructure challenges in order to ensure national economic growth.
Stakeholders, at a recent Business Luncheon organised by Apapa branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) in Lagos, observe that to achieve a sustainable electricity market that will ensure national economic growth, all hands must be on deck to monitor the Power Reform process, criticise, encourage and praise where necessary rather than folding arms and calling it a government affair.
Babatunde Odunayo, chairman, MAN, Apapa branch, said the event was aimed at engaging with the power technocrats in gaining an understanding of the direction in which Nigeria’s power supply delivery was headed, and what manufacturers might expect from the Power Sector in the short to medium term.
The programme presents a platform for members to interact with important stakeholders towards charting a strategic direction for the amelioration of the key infrastructural challenge faced by members in their factories, Odunayo said.
On the theme of the programme, “Power supply to the Nigerian Manufacturing Sector under a new Political Dispensation – which way forward?” Odunayo pointed out that Nigerian energy industry had clearly not been efficient in meeting the needs of consumers.
“The irregular energy service being provided and its rising high cost have weakened the manufacturing sector over the years. This weakening, among other factors, has come from the heavy investment in own-generators, in the full complement of spare parts, use of expensive diesel as fuel, and the investment in the full complement of staff for the maintenance of generators.
“This high cost of production of alternative source of energy has negatively affected the profitability of manufacturing operations and the competitiveness of our manufactured products,” he said.
In his address, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, who was represented by Olalekan Akodu, permanent secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, said “an economy that does not manufacture is a briefcase economy and Nigeria cannot remain a briefcase economy.
“We must wake up and revive the manufacturing sector. This is the only way to lasting and real economic growth as well as prosperity for our people.”
He observed that inadequate power supply was a major factor that had stalled the growth of the sector. This and other factors, including infrastructural deficit, have combined to make doing business in Nigeria very expensive.
“The theme of this luncheon, “Power supply to the Nigerian Manufacturing sector under a new Political Dispensation- Which way forward?” is, no doubt, a reflection of your growing concern and expectation of a significant improvement in the power sector,” he said.
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