Rising Costs Threatens Existence Of Manufacturing Sector – MAN

The President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Francis Meshioye, has expressed fear over the unrelenting increase in production costs, saying that the situation is posing a serious threat to the existence of the manufacturing sector.

He made this disclosure in a statement on Wednesday, during the association’s pre-annual General Meeting press conference held in Lagos.

According to him, the cost of manufacturing is rising daily due to scarce and unavailable manufacturing inputs.

Meshioye said, “Currently, the cost of manufacturing is daily rising owing to scarce and unavailable manufacturing inputs that continue to shrink profitability and threaten the existence of the critical sector of the economy.

“More worrisome is the fact that the sector that should propel job creation, productivity, and economic growth is enmeshed with a series of challenges that constantly limit its contribution to the Gross Domestic Product.”

Speaking further, Meshioye noted that challenges such as epileptic power supply, insecurity, inadequate infrastructure, shortage of forex and naira depreciation are prevailing issues that are impacting negatively on the sector.

“The AfCFTA window should be maximised in such a way that products manufactured in Nigeria would be the preferred in terms of quality and pricing,” he said