MAN Asks FG to Develop Comprehensive Industrial Policy
The President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Mansur Ahmed, Tuesday called on the federal government to develop a comprehensive industrial policy to be able to tackle current challenges being faced in the real sector.
Mansur said such policy will also bring about competitiveness in the manufacturing sector.
Speaking during a press briefing in Lagos, the MAN President said this has even become necessary in the face of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement that Nigeria has signed.
He said the association has already written to the new Minister of Industry , Trade and Investment on issues that should be addressed.
According to him, “ one of the things we have asked for is that there must be a comprehensive industrialization policy. Fortunately, the minister himself recognizes this need and we are hopefully going to work with the minister to rejig the industrial policy and make sure that we have a coherent comprehensive industrial policy.”
“ There is need to continue with our backward integration to strengthen various linkages in the value chains and the need to link particularly the SMEs with the large industrial manufacturing concerns in the country. Also, there is the need to link the sub-sectors, particularly the agricultural sector with the manufacturing sector.
“Also, there is need to work on some of the constraints that have made manufacturing uncompetitive in Nigeria, such as infrastructure, especially electricity. We are quite certain that if power supply is improved then the competitiveness of our industries will increase quite substantially.
“Same also with the transport infrastructure- we are working with relevant government agencies to ensure the unblocking of the Apapa Ports.
“As we go into the AfCFTA, we must make sure that our ports are competitive. We will take up all these issues with the new minister and work with the ministry to ensure that these issues are addressed and the ease of doing business, which is a core initiative, is also scaled up tremendously.”
“We have asked the government to be clearer in what it meant by food products. Some imports are inputs needed to produce finished goods and we need more time as the backward integration and value addition for domestic substitution cannot happen overnight”.
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