MAN inaugurates LCG to stimulate manufacturing
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria on Thursday in Lagos inaugurated Large Corporation Group to boost manufacturing in Nigeria as it will amongst other things come up with policy recommendations that will lead to a conducive economic and social climate for the operation and development for large scale industries in Nigeria.
In his speech Speaking Dr. Frank Udemba, President, MAN noted that one of the most crucial tasks before the Large Corporation Group is the facilitation effective linkage between small/medium scale industries and large scale industries in the production and supply value chain.
He said linkage is critical in the task of making Nigeria a manufacturing hub in the sub region and beyond.
Hajia Aisha Abubakar, Minister of State for Trade and Industry said the Federal Government was committed to creating the enabling environment for manufacturing to thrive in the country and that MAN is government’s strategic partner in achieving this task. She said the tough conditions that manufacturer’s face in Nigeria notably inadequate power was a top priority for the present administration.
In his phis presentation, Dr Christoph Reimnitz emphasized the availability of competitively priced LPG via GE’s fuel partner Vitol.
At the panel session on “Powering Manufacturing in Nigeria without Power”, the President and CEO of GE Nigeria Dr Lazarus Angbazo said the power deficit in Nigeria requires concerted co-operation of all stakeholders in the Power ecosystem. According to him, “there is no foreseeable way of boosting manufacturing in Nigeria without fixing the power sector”. Other panelists who spoke in similar vein were the CEO of British American Tobacco Mr. Chris Allister and the Vice President of MAN Engineer Ibrahim Usman. They agreed that the recent tariff increase to make the discos more bankable was a step in the right direction in attracting needed funding.
The panelists also recommended distributed/embedded power as a short term solution to addressing the power shortfall in the country.
