MAN calls for long term single digit loan

Meshioye

By allcitynews.ng

That Real Sector, the main developer of the economy has been battling for survival due to Federal Government policy summersaults, may no longer be news to many people, both to Nigerians in diaspora and living in the country.

But the fresh news is the call on government to come out with concrete and sustainable steps to link the country into or else the industrialisation goal would be a mirage.

As the impact of unsuitable and unstable government policy coupled with near-zero electricity supply continue to ravage the Nigerian economy, Organised Private Sector (OPS) wants to be carried along in policy-formulation that would affect the wellbeing of the sector.

As a result, the leadership of
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), advocated for a long-term single digit loan for manufacturers in order to fast track its planned industrialisation goal.

The President, Manufacturers Association Of Nigeria (MAN), Otunba Francis Meshioye, stated this at the 2024 Edition of the Man Reporter of the Year Award/Presidential Media Luncheon held on Tuesday, 27 February 2024 in Lagos.

“The CBN to develop a sustainable framework to channel credit interventions into the manufacturing sector, outside the direct intervention.

Additionally, it should mobilize commercial banks to intentionally provide long term single digit interest loans to the manufacturing sector to fast-track the actualization of a $1 trillion dollar economy”, he said.

He listed recommendations to move the Real Sector forward to include: expend cost saving from fuel subsidy to deploy a bouquet of production focused policies, backed with more structural measures to combat the peculiar inflationary pressures from insecurity, energy and transport cost.

To overhaul the power sector and incentive investment in renewables to boost electricity generation and promote energy-cost efficiency.

Calling on government to enforce patronage of homemade goods, Meshioye pointed out that:

Government should lead by example and give priority to patronage of made-in-Nigeria products in all its purchases and for all government contracts and projects, government should mandatorily upscale patronage of made in Nigeria products by deliberately reducing the excessive reliance of the country on imported products. And also, the three tiers of Government should enforce the implementation of the Executive Order 003 in same for their ministries, departments and agencies.

Moreover the MAN helmsman reiterated the need for government to encourage local sourcing of raw materials through comprehensive and integrated incentives to address the challenges of low productivity and imported inflation.

To utilize the 2024 Budget to sustain effort at improving infrastructural developments, especially in strategic industrial hubs to reduce operation and logistics cost and promote competitiveness.

To encourage sub-national Governments and private investors to leverage the opportunities provided by the Electricity Act 2023 to improve energy security in Nigeria, maintain all measures to boost the level of liquidity and degree of transparency in the official forex window even as the backlog of $7 billion forex obligations is being cleared.

On forex he said: To manage the floating exchange rate system within an acceptable lower and upper bound, pending the actualization of a net-exporting economy aspirations and prioritize forex and credit allocation to the manufacturers and reduce the number of BDCs into large and well-established operators to curb their excesses and untowards operations through effective management and supervision.

The President equally urged the government to encourage inflow of foreign direct investment into pre-determined and domestic production-enhancing businesses.

In addition, he called on government to intentionally guide diaspora remittances into non-oil sectors, especially manufacturing to aid forex inflows and curb rising inflation, the CBN should intensify its collaboration with the fiscal authority; Federal Ministry of Finance and by extension the Tariff Technical Committee (TTC) for proper policy alignment on the appropriate HS Codes for items that Nigeria has sufficient capacity to discourage importation and save scarce foreign exchange.

So also the apex bank should allow forex access for importation of vital industrial inputs that are currently not available locally and subject them to backward integration policy that gives priority to a predictable sunset clause.

Called for MAN members to be involved in processes, saying;
“MAN offers to be part of a monitoring and evaluation team to ensure that government gets value for incentives offered to achieve this objective.

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