Almost all manufacturers have their land papers with commercial banks to back their running loans. Now, the federal government created intervention funds through the Bank of Industry (BOI) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) but these fund managers are asking the manufacturers to submit their land certificates to access the intervention funds,
This has made the fund something for the gods, not human, according to manufacturers that spoke in Port Harcourt.
The chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Rivers/bayelsa, and national council member of MAN, the senator, Adawari Mcpepple, what is obtainable Europe and America is to use tax payments to determine viable companies, knowing that most manufacturers and other big businesses use their land papers to tap loans from banks.
Pepple stated at the sidelines of the 2020 MAN virtual AGM in Port Harcourt: “Yes, BOI was set up for loans to manufacturers and we have been hearing of intervention fund from the CBN of about N50BN to N75BN. The issue is, who are accessing these funds?
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At this point when manufacturers are already indebted to banks with the pandemic and problems of paying back, how will manufacturers present land papers. If you want to intervene, you are asking for collateral that are already with banks. Where will they bring collateral from?
“I have been calling for use of tax as a corporate citizen to qualify for intervention loans. The agencies can look for those genuine manufacturers who have been paying tax. Why not support them. In the UK, US, they do not demand for titled document of their factories. Its not done anywhere. You can do factory visit and establish ownership of the titles. You are playing to the gallery and killing the businesses.
This simply shows that no manufacturer in the PH zone has seen a kobo of intervention fund in this coronavirus era. This shows that post-pandemic era means nothing to manufacturers in this part of the country.
Won’t stop wailing:
Little wonder when the chairman was asked why the same problems of manufacturers are listed every year, he said: “We will not stop listing our challenges because the more we talk about them the more they get chances of being solved. Some would have been touched but some are not at all. We cannot stop talking about them annually.”
Build industrial park in PH
He went on: “Lockdown was big issue. We had problems before especially in sourcing raw materials but its worse now. That is why we have appealed to the state governments to consider industrial parks. Trans-amadi has outlived its usefulness having been filled up with hotels and non- industrial purposes.
We want action on this. We have done a paper on this through the commissioner and we are expecting the governor to respond. We will continue to invest in manufacturing. It entails a lot; land, equipment, operations, take off capital, employment, etc. Employing people is where the economy is touched with spiral effect. Government alone cannot do it. Every economy is driven by businesses. When people get jobs in businesses, nobody goes to disturb the government.
“In the 1980s, people did not go to the state secretariat to look for jobs but at TransAmadi and NPA. It is since jobs dried up in the private sector that people have become politicians and civil service seekers. Some pay as high as N1m to get a job. Government employ a limited number of people but there is no limit to the number the private sector can employ. That is why the private sector needs to be galvanised all the time.
Vision 2050 may still fail if…
“The Vision 2050 being proposed may still fail like the Vision 2020. My advice is that we should stop paying lip service in provision of basic infrastructure with power as number one. If power alone is solved, the rest would be secondary. There must be power and road such that goods can move. Look, there is no gain in manufacturing in PH and there is no road to Onne Port. Trucks just fall. The private sector cannot build roads and railways except it is liberalised to allow private sector investors. That is the challenge because only government can build roads by law. If these things are not done, the vision 2050 will be another illusion.”
