The outgoing president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Engr. Mansur Ahmed, has decried increasing incidence of new tax heads payable by manufacturing firms in Nigeria, noting that it has become a major threat to the survival of embattled manufacturing companies in the country.
The MAN President who was speaking at the 2nd Adeola Odutola Lecture in commemoration of the 50th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Association held on October 18, 2021 in Lagos, said the multiple levies were essentially responsible for the prevailing increase in the cost of doing business and reduction in investment inflows to the country.
“The expectation of manufacturers is that Government, going forward, would properly structure the tax system to be more progressive by widening the tax net, harmonizing business taxes/levies and putting in place a comprehensive and integrated framework that will facilitate the intentional movement of operators in the informal sector to the formal sector.“ He said.
Engr. Ahmed also noted that, extremely challenging for the manufacturing sector in recent years is the issue of inadequate access to forex for importation of critical inputs that are not available locally. “We are however hopeful that following the stable high crude oil price in recent time, Government would intentionally intervene and ensure that more forex is made available to manufacturers.”
According to him, equally challenging is the issue of inadequate supply and high cost of electricity, which is due largely to limited investment in electricity value chain. “We want Government to upscale efforts at improving power generation capacity, to take advantage of the abundant gas resources in the country by promoting more gas fired electricity plants…
“Allow manufacturers to access gas at the prevailing export price and classify manufacturing concerns as strategic user of gas to reduce the current high cost of energy and improve the competitiveness of the sector.” He said.
The MAN helmsman disclosed that the sector has been contending with inadequate credit supply and high cost of borrowing for so long which has grossly affected investment and utilization of available capacity in the sector.
In his words, “We commend the Government for always making efforts at solving the credit challenge of the sector through the various CBN funding windows. Your Excellency, we are aware that till date only about 20% of the funds has been accessed, which calls for deliberate effort to make the funds accessible to manufacturers, especially at this period of global economic difficulty.
“We commend the efforts of the Government at combating insecurity in the country. No country can successfully industrialize under the siege of insurgence, banditry, kidnapping and other related security vices.”
He appealed to the government to checkmate insecurity and give industrial areas across the country priority attention in mapping out strategies.
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