The Chairman of Apapa Branch of (MAN), Mr. Olukunle Obadina has described some of the government reform policies in manufacturing sector as not impacting positively on the real sector.
Obadina, who spoke at the 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the branch, pointed out that despite the various reforms designed to stimulate improved performance in the manufacturing sector, the sector remained challenged.
Identifying lack of low interest credit as the most critical constraint to current efforts targeted at boosting the sector’s performance, the industrialist also listed lack of foreign exchange availability, poor support infrastructure and multiple taxes, levies by various tiers and arms of government as doing harm to the industrial sector.
Other challenges he noted as hampering the sector’s growth are policy summersault/inconsistency, absence of core industries that would produce raw materials, insecurity, absence of inadequate support to encourage the growth of small and medium scale industries.
According to him, despite the multidimensional challenges, the national output grew in real terms by 0.72 percent in the Q2 of 2017 as against 2.06 percent in Q2 this year, representing 2.78 percent point increase over the period under review
In a corroborative stance, MAN’s National President, Frank-Jacobs Udemba, had noted that manufacturing sector was not optimizing its potential as some entities were under-utilising their installed capacity while others closed business.
He clarified: “The lack-luster performance of the national economy has made it imperative for us to rethink the country’s development strategy so that we would avoid the recent setback that befell the country.
“To this end, the Federal and state governments should work in synergy, carrying along relevant stakeholders in fashioning appropriate strategies to improve and stablise the economy”, the industrialist added.
As a remedial measure, he canvassed the need for government to improve the operating environment to encourage more investment in the real sector.
Specifically, he made strong case for incentives, infrastructure upgrade as well as other fiscal and monetary policy measures, including re-appraising the regulatory functions of some organs of government to improve the business environment.
