Government is responsible for business collapse says MAN as many businesses are ruined due to ill policies.
Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria has attributed business collapse to ill policies made by Government officials.
Many businesses have closed down and employment rates have increased due to harsh economic policies made by the government, which has also affected the standard of living of many Nigerians as the prices of goods and services soar.
In a statement via Segun Ajayi-Kadir, the Director General of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), has said government officials must face the consequences of introducing anti-business policies in the country.
Ajayi-Kadir stated this on Tuesday during an event tagged ‘Nigeria’s Challenging Economy: Strategies for Recovery,’ hosted by Channels Television to celebrate the Nation’s 64th Independence Anniversary.
He stressed the urgent reactive measures when ill policies birth economic setbacks for the industries.
Ajayi-Kadir said: “There must be consequence for government officials who make policies that ruin businesses.
“I mean, you make a policy today, it becomes a disaster for industry and the government simply changes it, and you walk away. We don’t have this luxury in the private sector.
“If you make a mistake, your business is gone, and you could destroy your property. So I think we need to see that movement also on the part of government.”
He made a rallied call that the uphill faced presently was caused by a rise in interest rate which must be reverted.
The DG indicated that the borrowing rate of 20-34 per cent is bad enough to kill any business, especially, in Nigeria’s economy which is already struggling to breathe.
Noting that the consumer purchasing power is overwhelmingly dropping by the day.
“We should be able to assuage the challenges we are having with continuously raising interest rates,” he said.
“You’ve done it for more than 18 months, and you’ve not done any impact assessment on the productive sector.
“I think you need to be able to insulate that sector so that you can inflate the economy.”
Photo Credit: Ministry Of Industry, Trade And Investment
‘INDUSTRIAL POLICY’ MUST BE ESTABLISHED
He proposed that an ‘Industrial Policy’ must be established which we regulate and guide the government’s interference and approach to industrialisation.
According to him, he noted that the policy will oversee and regulate the relationship between government ministries such as the ministry of industry, trade and investment the ministry of finance, and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“I must say that policy coordination is extremely important for us because you can’t operate in such a way that you don’t know what to expect tomorrow,” he said.
“It will define where we want to be, and it will guide our operations.”
He also looked to question the efficacy of Nigeria’s embassies abroad, proposing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and targeting strategically penetrating foreign markets for Nigerian products which would attract foreign investors.
When paying homage to Wale Edun, the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, the DG called for a better government policies.
Government Is Responsible For Business Collapse Says MAN
He then implored the government to desist from playing politics with economic policies and solicited a well-coordinated approach to understandable expectations, deliverables and accountability to bring about cooperation between the government and industry.
‘FG SHOULD DIVERSIFY THE ECONOMY TO GET FX’
Ajayi-Kadir stated that the country did not need to solely depend on crude oil sales to get foreign exchange (FX), imploring the federal government to diversify the economy.
“We don’t also have to depend on the sale of oil for us to be able to get forex. First, we must realise all the income that we can get from oil and we shouldn’t have any impediments, whether human, structural, or system-imposed. I mean, we should be clear about it. It’s our natural resource,” he said.
“We should fully recover all the forex that we can get from there. We need to address the issue of diaspora remittance which has a very great potential of bringing in far more forex than Nigeria is receiving.
“Those can help to address the foreign exchange challenges that we have.
Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Nigeria – Credit – Ministry of Finance
“There’s one presently that I still cannot understand why we’ve not been able to overcome it and it’s the N2.4 billion unredeemed forwards with the CBN.”
He noted that the exposure of foreign exchange has brought about wanton losses for manufacturers.
“I believe that it will require the intervention of Mr. President, because I have a member, for instance, who has lost N7.2 billion because of this forex exposure for no fault of his and eight of our members, because of the forex exposure, have lost 918 billion in the last one year,” he said.
He proposed that looking into the present economic issues does not require new laws, legislation and executive, but well-strategised efforts to solve the challenges of foreign exchange.
REACTIONS:
“This is the problem with people like this. Everybody knows he was referring to recent government economic policies that have more or less destroyed the economy.
“He even alluded to the unending increases of the interest rate, and the net effects on the ‘productive sector.’
“So why are you commending Wale Edun then? Is he not the guy DIRECTLY in charge of producing these retarded economic policies, and as such, responsible for all these catastrophic economic realities?
“In one statement, ‘you’re praising and castigating one man because you refuse to be a man yourself.’
“We can’t go anywhere in this country until we are ready to speak truth to power.’− Anonymous.
