Abuja: Mr Frank Onyebu, the immediate past chairman of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Apapa branch, Lagos, has urged deeper industrial reforms. He called for massive investments in infrastructure, power supply, and an enabling business environment to transform the sector.
According to News Agency of Nigeria, Onyebu said this would help Nigeria’s manufacturing industry maximise opportunities created by 27 years of democratic governance. He gave the advice on Friday while assessing democracy’s impact and urged the government to introduce policies that would make manufacturing more attractive than importing finished goods.
Onyebu stressed the need for sustained infrastructure investment and policy continuity to strengthen industrial growth and competitiveness, identifying roads, electricity, taxation, and policy consistency as critical areas requiring continuous government attention. He noted that democracy had encouraged stronger engagement between government and the private sector, leading to reforms aimed at improving the operating environment for businesses.
He highlighted the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market as a notable reform supporting manufacturers, promoting transparency and creating a more level playing field for industries. However, Onyebu noted that democratic governance had not delivered the industrial transformation needed, as manufacturing firms had increased, but the sector’s contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) had declined.
On policy consistency, Onyebu remarked that democracy encouraged stable policies, but implementation remained a major challenge. Nigeria had always developed good policies, but poor implementation had hindered progress, and incoming administrations often abandoned existing policies in favor of their own programmes.
Onyebu described poor infrastructure as one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers, with poor roads affecting access to factories, raw materials, and markets nationwide. He added that unreliable electricity supply continued to weaken industrial competitiveness and increase costs, with most manufacturers getting less than 40 per cent of their energy mix from the national grid, forcing them to rely on expensive alternative energy sources.
He pointed out that rising production costs and weak consumer purchasing power had affected businesses, leading to unsold inventories and shrinking profit margins. Assessing President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms, Onyebu said some decisions were difficult but necessary, yet criticised the government’s handling of the cost of governance and public spending.
Onyebu stated that many manufacturers had initially supported fuel subsidy removal due to corruption concerns, expecting savings to be channelled into infrastructure development. He expressed disappointment that this did not happen, resulting in reduced consumer demand and products remaining in warehouses instead of reaching markets.
The former MAN chairman emphasised that Nigeria must pursue aggressive industrialisation to create jobs and growth, advocating for stronger public-private partnerships to address infrastructure gaps and attract investment. He highlighted Nigeria’s population and market potential as attractive for investors, suggesting that Nigeria could become a major industrial hub akin to China.