Manufactures Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ogun Chapter, yesterday lamented over the increase of Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) from 12 to 13 per cent. Mr Wale Adegbite, the State Chairman of the association made the lamentation in Ota.

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Adegbite said that with the recent development, the lending rate in the financial sector would go up.

Meanwhile, the exchange rate for the dollar at the parallel market yesterday stood at between N182 and N186. This is against the new official exchange rate N168 announced on Tuesday by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele.

Some of the operators said that the difference between their rate and the official rate was to accommodate the “extra charges’’ they pay to “dealers’’ they get the hard currency from.

The CBN on Tuesday announced a new exchange rate of N168 to one U.S. dollar as against the old rate of N155 to one dollar.

The CBN governor told newsmen at the end of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting in Abuja that the measure was to strengthen the economy, following continued slid of oil price in the international market.

Part of the measures, as announced by Emefiele, was an increase in lending rate from 12 per cent to 13 per cent.

The MPR, one of the monetary policy instruments of CBN, is the benchmark lending rate and the rate at which the CBN lends to commercial banks.

Adegbite stated that the increased in the lending rate by the regulator would made manufacturers to borrow at a high rate which would increase their cost of productions.

“The nation suffers infrastructure deficiency ready and transferring the high cost of production to consumer would worst the situation of thing because of what the people are going through,’’ he said.

According to him, it would make the manufacturers to be less competitive compared to imported products and reduce their profit margins. The Chairman said that the devaluation of the nation’s currency would make manufacturers that import raw material to spend more in the process.

“When manufacturers spent more in importing raw materials, it would automatically reduce funds available to invest in buying machineries,’’ he said.

Adegbite said that the step by the CBN to increased MPR and devaluation of naira would have an adverse effect on the employment rate and increase poverty in the country.