Gbola Subair, Abuja - 21.08.2009
Manufacturers operating in the Nigeria business environment have disclosed that more than N1.8 billion is being spent weekly as the operating environment gets tougher.
Also, the manufacturers, unanimously, agreed that infrastructural problem, more than fiscal factors, was their greatest headache as they carried out their day-to-day activities.
The manufactures, who operate under different trade associations like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI), told the Nigerian Tribune that the major problem facing the manufacturing sector was the lack of power, occasioned by the total collapse of the power sector.
According to the operators, the consistent rise in the cost of diesel to power electricity generating plants in the factories across the country is alarming.
They described as intolerable, a situation where the price of diesel had risen from between N85 and N90, to between N98 and N108 per litre, an increase of more than 10 per cent, at a time that the Nigerian economy was still struggling to cope with the effects of the global economic meltdown.
However, in Abuja , the producers disclosed that that the pump price of diesel was currently between N100 and N105 per litre, adding that for some days, it would not be available.
Mr. Kolawole Ade-bayo, who has an agro allied firm in Kuje, told the Nigerian Tribune that the situation had deteriorated to the point that his 30-staff workfoce had to be trimmed down to 10 because of the high cost of production, occasioned by lack of electricity.
A member of MAN and chief executive of a paint company, Chief Joseph Akpan, disclosed that many of the association members had closed shop, while some had relocated to other countries with better operating environment, to continue their businesses.
He disclosed that the volume of diesel consumed daily in Nigeria was currently put at between 12 million and 13 million litres.
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