The Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) said that 60 per cent of manufacturers in the North East region have closed shop due to hostile operating environment driven by insecurity.
The Director General of MAN Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who disclosed this, said there is need an industrial policy to promote industrial development, incentivise private sector participation and allow inter-sectoral engagement.
He stated this during a panel session at the 9 January Collective, J9C 13th anniversary lecture themed: “Business and Policy Strategy: Examining the Role of Reforms in Enhancing the EoDB in Nigeria”.
Ajayi-Kadir said the manufacturing sector has not historically been handled well by the Nigerian government, adding that they pay leap service to the sector because they do not see it as a business endeavour.
His words: “Nigeria does not have an industrial policy, there is need to have policy that allows that sector to engage with other sectors and even guide your foreign relation. Nigeria has no business promoting hot money; you need to focus on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI); those ones that would remain in the economy, not flight by night business people who stay in the hotels.
“Nigeria must have a system that attracts people who are going to invest in industry, mining, who will beneficiate your raw material and natural resources and retain inclusive development for the economy.
“You need to grow your domestic economy, there is no one that would help you develop your country, if you must have investment from foreigners, it has to be the one that you have proposed to have, but they will never come if they have seen that foreign firms are leaving Nigeria.
“If you make companies in Nigeria prosperous, people will come; if you make the environment conducive, people would come. When I joined MAN about 30 years ago we had more industries, we lost 732 members of the association, and 60 per cent of our members have closed in the North East.
“If you revive those ones, you shouldn’t be asking for foreigners, what needs to be done is to treat the people here well, and Foreign Direct Investment, FDI would come in and stay, not flight by night investors”, he said.
