The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, through its Manufacturers Confidence Index, MCCI, have recorded measure changes in quarterly pulsation of manufacturing activities in relation to movement in the macroeconomy and Government policies. According to the report the Index is therefore barometer used by MAN to aggregate the views of CEOs of manufacturing companies on changes in the economy.

MCCI also measures changes in key macroeconomic indicators including sector specific factors that represent Government activities and policy measures in the economy. Consequently, the effects of movements in Foreign Exchange, Lending Rate, Credit to the manufacturing sector and Capital Expenditure of the Government were also measured. In addition, it gauges the outcome of changes in business operating environment factors which include Over-regulation, Multiple taxes/levies, Access to seaports, Local raw-material sourcing, Government patronage of Nigerian manufactured goods and Inventory of unsold manufactured products.

MCCI covered 400 Chief Executive Officers of MAN member-companies across the six geo-political zones and Sectoral Groups of the Association through MAN’s branch networks. Since the first edition, MCCI has consistently provided experiential bases that are critical to strengthening the evidence advocacy dogma of the Association.

The report indicated that manufacturing performance for the year under review is still below the mark, notwithstanding the marginal improvement in the operating environment during the quarter under review, as the sector is still plagued by numerous familiar constraints adding that some of these challenges enumerated by manufacturers are clearly presented in this report.

Consequently, it was reported that in order to improve the performance of the sector, Government needs to intentionally put in place mechanism that will address these challenges permanently by considering and implementing the following recommendation:

Further incentivize investment in the development of raw-materials locally through the Backward Integration and Resource based industrialization initiates. Government should call for more investor to key into these initiatives with appropriate and definite incentives. For instance, there is need for urgent investment and production of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API) in the country; investment and production of machines; iron and steel; petrochemical materials, etc to support manufacturing activities.

Give specific attention to the security of life and investment in industrial areas; properly delineate and upscale security infrastructure in the various industrial areas in the country, particularly in the northern part of the country for priority attention. Government should also quickly invest in modern security such as drones, camera, etc. for robust monitoring of the areas.

Ensure effective allocation of available forex to productive sectors, particularly the manufacturing sector for importation of raw materials and vital machine and equipment that are not available locally. Government also needs to expressly direct the Central Bank of Nigeria to consult with the Ministries of Industry Trade & Investment and effectively engage MAN on measures for improving forex supply to manufacturing concerns.

Direct the Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation to inaugurate the Secretariat that will implement the strategies for the Executive Order and SON to designate local manufacturers of LPG Gas Cylinders as priority provider of the 10 million Cooking Gas Cylinders to be procured by the Government for 12 States in the Federation.

Return Milk and other Dairy Products to the National List in the Fiscal Policy Guidelines to maintain consistency with the Backward Integration Programme, which has spurred heavy investments in the diary production.

Unify academic curriculum with industrial skill needs and requirements to guarantee sustainable development of skilled manpower for the industries. Government should as a matter of urgency synchronize the curricular of tertiary institutions, particularly the Polytechnics with skills requirements of industries.  The various government vocational and training centers should also be re-engineered to offer those skills that are needed by the industries.

• Revisit the resuscitation of the existing national refineries to produce fuels locally, embark on the rehabilitation of major highway corridors, improve trade facilitation infrastructure and deepen the ongoing development of rails system to change narrative on operating environment from being high cost to low production cost environment.

• Government should ensure that industrial policies in the country are allowed to gestate with proper monitoring and evaluation rather than jettisoning or altering them unduly frequently. The continuous infractions on the original   EPZ and   tariffs for the Motor Vehicle and Assembly sector should be quickly remedied to the development of the zones and motor vehicle assembly in the country.