NGOZI AMUCHE
Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to support their members concerned with existing loan facilities by reviewing the terms and reducing interest rates to five per cent with a two-year moratorium.
President of MAN, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, made this demand at the 48th Annual General Meeting of the association in Lagos over the weekend.
According to him, “Manufacturers that are investing to scale up production should be granted loans at five per cent interest rate for a period of five to seven years.
“These will no doubt improve liquidity and ramp up productivity in the manufacturing sector in a manner that will cover up for obvious losses due to the Coronavirus Disease.”
Ahmed also urged government to direct all regulatory agencies to reduce their respective administrative charges (pre-COVID-19 rates) payable by manufacturing concerns by 50 per cent.
MAN president also said that his members had so far made donations worth N8bn in cash and N300m worth of materials to governments as COVID-19 palliatives.
He said, “On our part, we donated about N8bn in cash and are sincerely grateful to our frontline health workers and other service providers for their commitment, sacrifice and service to humanity.
“To this end, I sincerely appreciate members of MAN for their support to government when it was most needed to provide palliative to cushion the hardship experienced by Nigerians and to contain the spread of COVID-19.”
Ahmed added that the association remained resolute at continuously supporting its members to explore business opportunities to navigate the current challenging times confronting the industry due to COVID-19.
On the current state of the Nigerian economy and the manufacturing sector, the MAN president said the performance of the economy was fragile and slowly sliding into recession.
According to him, the association’s outlook for the first quarter of 2020 found maximum expression in the actual performance of economic indicators.
Economic activity in the year was disrupted by the spiral effect of the pandemic, he said.
He urged the Central Bank of Nigeria to ensure a properly managed transition regime to reduce the effects on the manufacturing sector.
Ahmed said, “The burden of foreign currency denominated loans and offsetting of existing credit commitments to foreign suppliers of raw materials should be given priority consideration.
“It is our conviction that the foreign exchange unification initiative will engender a regime of a balanced participation for forex users and promote a transparent, as well as efficient allocation of forex required for sustained economic growth.”