The Apapa Branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has urged the Lagos State Government to come to the aid of its members by addressing issues bordering on logistics and infrastructure.
The Chairman of MAN, Apapa Branch, Frank Onyebu, made the appeal on Tuesday during the 12th edition of the association’s business luncheon in Lagos.
The theme of the event was “Facilitating Ease of Clearing Inputs for Manufactured Goods under AfCFTA”.
Onyebu said the association would continue to engage the Lagos State Government on the challenges confronting manufacturers in the state.
He urged the state government to come to the aid of manufacturers in the Apapa, Amuwo Odofin and Kirikiri areas of the state, particularly in the aspect of infrastructural development.
“It appears we have been neglected. The roads used to access our factories are non-existent,” he said.
The Managing Director of Transerve Disc Technologies Ltd., Cyprian Orakpo, urged the state government to also resolve the issue of multiple taxation from non-state actors.
Orakpo also urged the Nigerian Customs Service to help ease the bottlenecks experienced by manufacturers, particularly the delay of not less than two weeks, before goods were examined.
On its part, the Nigeria Customs Service called on manufacturers to comply with rules of origin while profiling to help ease clearing of inputs for goods and services.
Customs Area Controller, Apapa Command, Comptroller Auwal Mohammed, said the Nigeria Customs Service had put strategies in place to ease the country’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area.
Mohammed said that compliance with the rules of origin was one criterion that would give manufacturers’ products and services the benefit of preferential treatment under the AfCFTA.
The Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Lola Akande, said the adoption of AfCFTA had the potential to accelerate intra-African trade and develop regional, national and local value chains.
“It will create new business dynamics that offer investors access to a population of 1.7 billion people with combined business and consumer spending that will mark up to 6.7 billion dollars by 2030,” she said.
