MAN President urges Federal Government to scale up Energy sector

Success Damian: 

President of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Engr. Mansur Ahmed, has called on the Federal Government to scale up its plan for the energy sector to reduce cost, improve processes, maximise value addition and generate employment.

Ahmed made the call at the opening ceremony of the 2020 Edition of the Fifth Nigeria Manufacturing and Equipment Expo (NME) and Sixth Nigeria Raw Materials Expo holding at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, from March 10 to 12, 2020.

He said “One critical challenge before us is inadequate energy supply for industrial use. As manufacturers we cannot achieve competiveness with the current state of our electricity supply. It is thus, expedient that government scale-up its plan for the energy sector to reduce cost, improve processes, maximise value addition and generate employment. “

Ahmed went further to advocate that there is also the need to increase skills and labour productivity and encourage more women into the manufacturing field, adding that the nation’s current energy projection and currently generated supply is below the expected level required to drive an industrialized economy.

The theme of the 2020 Expo is “The Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Nigerian Manufacturing sector”.

Ahmed said that the theme is informed by the observed global trends and current development experienced in some developing nations, which have used industrialization as a growth tool to drive and transform their economy as well as improve their standards of living. Notable experiences from the East Asian Tigers-Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, China, India, and Vietnam, he said, have illustrated the transformative nature of industrialization.

He said that the annual market place for stakeholders affords us an opportunity to examine the state of the manufacturing sector and deliberate on the roadmap for the development. He maintained that both exhibitions continue to serve a great purpose in improving the status of the nation’s manufacturing sector particularly with the representation of the entire manufacturing value chain at the Expo Floor since inception in 2016.

He said MAN has taken the challenge of leading the manufacturing sector to play a vital role in the nation’s vision of becoming one of the leading industrialized economies in Africa “Through the annual event which provides a common ground for large manufacturing organizations and SMEs to explore new production process that will increase their production output, MAN has taken the challenge of leading the manufacturing sector to play a vital role in the nation’s vision of becoming one of the leading industrialized economies in Africa, Ahmed said”

According to the MAN President, the NIRAM Expo, on the other hand, is aimed at creating a platform where stakeholders in the raw materials supply chain will come together to synergize, display and trade in available resources and raw materials with the users of the products. “With this in mind, we intend to close the information gaps and encourage local sourcing of available raw materials by manufacturing industries which is in line Government backward integration programme.

Ahmed said that the emergence of new technology, changing markets and the upcoming African free trade market calls for stakeholders collaboration to anticipate and response appropriately to the evolving manufacturing eco-system which is been ushered in the rapid adoption of the new and innovative technology. “These new technologies which are largely driven by digital revolution such as robotics, cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing are influencing manufacturing input and output,” Ahmed reiterated.

He said ahead of the implementation of the AfCFTA which will open the manufacturing sector to a much larger market, Nigeria manufacturers have to adopt the use of new technology to compete favourably with other nations that will be participating in the free trade market. 

He said that from the manufacturers’ angle, studies consistently confirm that energy is the single most important constraint to productivity and competitiveness of the sector in Nigeria. The impact is felt across micro, small and medium as well as large manufacturers.

Ahmed maintained that beyond manufacturing, all industrial and commercial businesses in the country also suffer from energy inadequacy and inefficiency. “It is for this reason that investors in the economy will continue to urge for sustained effort to bring about significant improvement in the quantum, quality and consistent supply of electricity. The vision of industrialized Nigeria would remain an illusion until we resolve the electric power challenge in our economy,” he said.