The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, are clamoring for a reduction in interest rate to between three and five per cent.
MAN President Frank Udemba Jacobs, who spoke during the week on the sideline of the association’s Council in Lagos, said: “One of the challenges we have is funding.We are concerned with the high interest rate that banks charge manufacturers. Government is serious about diversification but they cannot diversify at this current rate. We hope the government will reduce the rate to three to five percent.”
He slammed multiple taxation, insisting that it is wrong for companies moving goods from one place to another to pay the same tax in every local government. He said there should be a one-stop-shop where taxes are paid.
Jacobs recalled his recent discussion with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele, where he (Emefiele) made good his promise to make further concessions for manufacturers in foreign exchange (forex) allocation.
“Apart from the 41 items that are not valid for forex, all the 10 sectors said that they have been getting forex allocations now. I want to report to you that CBN has been allocating foreign exchange to some of our members now,” he stated.
Jacobs urged the government to hurriedly assent to the budget to ensure its full and timely implementation.
“We are happy that a huge sum was allocated to infrastructure in the budget, which is a major bane of industrialisation. Energy is still a major problem for manufacturers and railways that should be conveying goods at relatively cheap costs are still not there. It is our hope that when its full implementation starts, some of these challenges will be addressed,” he said.
