The Commerce Africa African Reneissance
Related Articles
As Nigeria’s energy crisis continues to affect businesses across the country, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has urged the federal and state governments to rescue industries from the current epileptic power supply and hike in price of diesel across the country.
In a statement, the Chairman Kwara/Kogi states branch, Mr Bioku Rahmon, said there was the need to urgently rescue players and investors from an imminent orgy of unemployment and mass closure of companies currently looming in the country.
According to the statement, while the manufacturing industry was yet to fully recover from the monumental strangulations it suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing energy crisis is the exact antithesis of what the industry can’t contain at this time.
It explained that the National Grid-Supplied Electricity has recorded no improvement which is greatly affecting activities of MAN.
To this extent, the association called on the state and Federal Government to bail it out and save the manufacturing sector from imminent collapse.
It also asked that the interest rates on industrial loans be reduced by commercial banks adding that the government should widen the window of Foreign Exchange (FX) to industries and a drastic reduction of interest rates as done with the COVID-19 palliatives.
“Renewed wave of inflationary pressures further plunged the buying masses into extreme depths of poverty with concomitant erosion of customers’ Disposable Income (DI) and hence culminated in low patronage of our industrial finished products.
