To drive local patronage, expansion of production scale, the President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Frank Udemba Jacob has disclosed that his group is seriously working with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to make a Local Content Act as a bill to the Senate.
Addressing issues of urgent industry importance during the MAN annual media luncheon in Lagos stated that the association has done it best on its advocacy on lowering the monetary policy rate with little or no result.
He however, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to take a drastic action about lowering interest rate for manufacturers, stressing that MAN members are not happy about it. He pointed out that MAN has been working with Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment to make a total Content Act as a bill to the Senate.
Raising more issues on foreign exchange, Jacob stated that unavailability of foreign exchange has forced most manufacturers to close shop or reduced their capacity. “Most of our members are depending on black market to source for foreign exchange for procurement of its raw material and machineries from abroad which will make us uncompetitive.
Jacob added that “Periodically, we engaged government on the issues of patronage of made-in-Nigeria products. We have had forum on it and recorded success, today they are coming up with buy made-in-Nigeria policy.”
MAN also mandated the federal government not to sign the ECOWAS-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in its current form and further advocated the review of Export Expansion Grant (EEG) which has been in limbo since 2014.
Jacob further advised the government to increase budgetary allocation for the upgrade of critical infrastructure by the federal government as evidence for the establishment of the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN).
