The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has advised the Federal Government to convene a strategic meeting with key operators in the economic space in the face of the Ukraine-Russian war.
MAN said the meeting was imperative for the economic stakeholders to deliberate and craft a national strategic response to the disruptive impact of the ongoing Ukraine-Russian war on the global supply value chain and the debilitating impact on the economy.
The President, MAN, Mansur Ahmed, stated this on Thursday at the 37th Annual General Meeting of the Ogun State branch of the association held in Abeokuta.
Ahmed, whose speech was read by the Director-General, MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said the call for the meeting would help the government to identify viable options to ameliorate the impact of the disruption.
MAN boss however appealed to the government to remove the 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax on Automobile Gas Oil pending the supply from international is normalised.
He also called for the implementation of the Eligible Customer Initiative to afford the Manufacturers the opportunity of the stranded electricity.
While lamenting on the challenges facing the manufacturing sector, Ahmed, who spoke in the presence of the state governor, Dapo Abiodun, and the MAN branch Chairman, Seleem Adegunwa, said government was needed to quickly intervene on the challenges.
He said, “There is no doubt that the manufacturing sector suffered some setbacks in recent times. These challenges include among others; high cost of diesel and other petroleum products; acute shortage and high cost of forex; insecurity across the country; high cost of raw materials; inconsistent government policies; high regulatory compliance cost; gridlock and inadequate infrastructure at the ports.
“Our more recent top advocacy item is our call on government to urgently convene a strategic meeting with key operators in the Nigerian economic space to deliberate and craft a national strategic response to the disruptive impacts of the ongoing Russian-Ukraine war on the global supply value chain and it’s debilitating impact on our economy.
“We believe that this will help to identify viable options to ameliorate the impact of the disruption; agree on ways to assuage other points in the business environment; activate innovative solution to familiar and emerging macroeconomic and infrastructure challenges and generally point the direction for resilience in the economic ecosystem.”
In his remarks, the state branch chairman of MAN, stated that the pandemic and #EndSARS agitation negatively affected the business environment in the state.
He said many companies found it very difficult to regain their stands in the business world.
