New Telegraph

‘Infrastructure deficit disrupting growth of manufacturing’

With report that Nigeria would need $100 billion yearly to fix infrastructural deficit, a member of the organised private sector has insisted that it is the biggest challenge facing the country’s manufacturing sector and the economy in general. According to the former Chairman, Export Group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) and also member of the Governing Council of LCCI, Dr. Obiora Madu, in a chat with New Telegraph in Lagos, the country’s infrastructure defcit is already affecting domestic trade, competitiveness in export, manufacturing sector and the GDP (gross domestic product) in general. He said infrastructure deficit in the country had resulted to Nigerian manufacturers sufferring huge export trade challenge as their goods cannot compete with others in the neighbouring countries.

Madu said: “Infrastructure deficit is the bane of this economy. It is affecting our domestic trade, it is affecting our competitiveness in export trade. In the export side, you cannot compete effectively because you have the other countries to contend with. Even in the domestic side, you have imported goods to contend with. So it’s a lot straits on our manufacturing sector.”

The LCCI chieftain added that many manufacturers were groaning over bad policy of the current administration on their businesses. On manufacturing sector’s loss to bad infrastructure, he said: “It requires research but it’s huge; that is the best way to put it. Because where do you want to start? Talk to Nigerian manufacturers or anybody who’s a manufacturer running business in Nigeria today about the adverse effects of infrastructure deficit on our economy. “And again, this is why people keep cutting corners just to slow down their businesses to stay afloat not to make profit. Bad policy is also not helping matters in this country presently.”

Madu warned government that it was impossible to have a vibrant manufacturing sector in the face of cheap import and high production and operating cost in the domestic economy, adding that “some of these imports are landing at 50 per cent of the cost of products produced locally. “Besides, manufacturers have to worry about high energy cost; they have to worry about high interest rates – 20 per cent and above; they have to worry about a multitude of regulatory agencies making different demands on them; they have to worry about massive smuggling and under invoicing of imports, they worry about trade facilitation issues at the sea ports and many more. “For most manufacturing SMEs, it is a nightmare. Yet production is critical to an enduring economic and social stability.”

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