Obasi Ekeagbara, Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Imo/Abia Branch, has urged the Federal Government to make policies that will help manufacturing sector to keep afloat, lamenting that the tough operating environment for the sector has weakened the capacity of most of the factories to work and operate to their full installed capacity.
Obasi, who is also the Chairman, Akachi Industries Limited Geepee Group, stated that such policies should include making waiver on imported raw materials for industrialists to enable them import for their factories to work at full capacity.
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He stated that the Federal Government as a matter of survival of the manufacturing sector, should ensure that the sector would enjoy a “special interest rate”, like their counterparts in the developed world.
According to the MAN Chairman of Imo/Abia Branch, such policies must include a “free trade and exports between neighbouring country”, in the African region.
He further requested that there should be incentives for the manufacturers to enable them compete favourably internationally.
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He, however, reminded the Federal Government that the manufacturing sector plays a critical role in Nigeria’s economy and urged Government to cooperate with the manufacturing sector which contributes significantly to the nation’s economic growth.
