The President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, Francis Meshioye has faulted the economic policies initiated by President Bola Tinubu.
Meshioye who made this known on Thursday in an interview with Channels Television, stressed that the president’s policies in the last twelve months have made manufacturing businesses unattractive in Nigeria.
According to him, manufacturers are worse hit by fuel subsidy removal, Naira devaluation, recent electricity tariff hikes, and interest rate hikes in Nigeria.
While noting that the growth of manufacturing was not put on the front burner in Tinubu’s administration, Meshioye explained that the country’s rising headline and food inflation, which stood at 34.19 percent and 40.87 in June, respectively, is majorly affected by food and energy price increase.
He emphasized that Nigeria’s interest rate, which stood at 26.25 percent in May 2024, is a major hindrance to businesses in the country.
“Major contributors to Nigeria’s rising inflation are food and energy. For instance, a tuber of yam showed that Nigerians can no longer afford it. The price moved from about N1000 to N3000. If you look at the electricity tariff cost, it moved from N66 per Kilowatt-hour to N209. If you look at the percentage increase, you discover that the country’s inflation rise is not marginal. That is why I said it is a mix-grid. This has affected the manufacturing business generally.
“Policies that have been implemented in the past twelve months, the fuel subsidy removal, the devaluation of the naira—all these have made manufacturing unattractive,” he said.
The MAN President advised that the government must do more to implement policies that are favorable to manufacturers.
It would be recalled that during his inauguration into office a year ago, Tinubu announced the removal of fuel subsidy and floated the Naira at the foreign exchange market. A situation that resulted to the soaring increase in the prices of food items and other essential commodities in the market, leading to low purchasing power for most Nigerians.
