The Federal Government has charged members of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to lobby to end the importation of substandard goods.
The Presidential Committee on Trade Malpractices, (PCTM) and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) gave the charge on Thursday, during a meeting with members of MAN in which they challenged the manufacturers to intensify lobbying to fight against the importation of sub-standard goods in the country.
During the event members of MAN presented four operational vehicles as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Some of the manufacturing companies present at the meeting included SUMO Steels Limited, Aarti Steel, Olak Group, Kam Wire and Steel. They presented three Toyota Hilux and one bus, to the two government agencies to support of their operations.
In his remarks during the meeting, the chairman of PCTM, Dahiru-Ado Kurawa, said the companies’ gesture is in support of the manufacturing sector and the Nigerian economy at large.
Kurawa, who noted that his committee is also working with other sub-sectors of the economy, said that all hands must be on the deck for local manufacturing to gain the required momentum needed in the country.
Read also: SON winning war against substandard goods
“I am happy to assure you that we are currently working with so many other sub-sectors in a bid to understand what is happening and support local manufacturing in those sub-sectors and stop the influx of foreign goods illegally into the Nigerian economy,” he said.
According to the PCTM boss, stakeholders in the steel sub-sector need to synergise with critical agencies to ensure that what happened to the textile industry, which had been hit by total collapse along with the value chain, does not befall the steel industry.
Also, the director-general of SON, Salim Farouk, described the steel manufacturers’ gesture as a good example of cooperation, assuring that the government is determined to protect the industries.
Farouk pointed out that the industries create employment, pay taxes, and add value to the nation’s economy hence the need to provide support.
He decried lack of adequate support from the industries noting that some of the industries do not support where they ought to support urging the manufacturing firms to up their game as they are up against big lobbyists who carry out the importation of sub-standard goods into the country.
“If the industries in Nigeria are together as a lobbying group, as a force in the public, to protect us as regulators, to protect the people, speak with one voice, believe me, this issue of sub-standard goods in the market will be a thing of yesterday.
The representative of MAN, Adeyemi Folorunsho, said that the gesture is part of efforts to appreciate the good works being done by the government establishments.
