Abuja – Mr Jide Mike, the Director General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), on Wednesday reiterated that the cost of manufacturing in Nigeria was still too high.

Mike said at the Investors’ Forum of the 2011 Biennial Techno Expo in Abuja that there was no enabling environment for manufacturing as the cost was a limitation.

The DG was represented at the forum, organised by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), by the Director of the Abuja Liaison Office of the association, Mr Shegun Ajayi.

“The cost challenges faced by the manufacturers include high cost of power generation, high interest rates, lack of long term loans and inadequate operational fund for the Bank of Industry (BOI).

“Others are high cost of infrastructure such as energy, transportation, mobile telephone and internet tariffs as well as multiple taxation,” he said.

Mike said petroleum products were still being imported and that this had given room for “incessant upward review of the prices of petrol, diesel and gas”.

He also said that of the nation’s 194,000 kilometres of road coverage, less than 18 per cent were in good condition, resulting in loss of time and limiting the manufactures’ access to the markets.

The DG said that research conducted in Lagos, Oyo and Ogun had revealed that manufacturers faced about 100 different taxes by the three tiers of government as against the legally approved 38.

He further said that the cost of administering the recently introduced Cargo Track Note by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and high port charges by concessionaires were also challenges facing the industry.

“The aggregate of all the about put the country’s manufacturing cost as much as 45 per cent higher than World averages, ensuring a `dead on arrival’ position,” Mike said.

He said that apart from the cost challenges, there were social challenges, such as the activities of hoodlums, religious crises, militant activities in the oil producing areas and kidnapping, among others.

Mike said that between 1981 and 2005, the oil and non-oil sectors had increased their GDP by over 100 per cent, while the manufacturing sector, amid so many fluctuations, attained only about 50 per cent increment.

He said that a survey of about 300 manufacturing companies carried out by MAN showed that in 2001, 2.75 million people were employed by the manufacturing sector.

“In 2002, the figure rose to 2.84 million and reduced to 1.03 million in 2008 as a result of some challenges inhibiting its growth,” Mike said.

He, however, it was not all litanies of woes for the investment climate, because the country was still an investment haven in view of the many opportunities that abound in the manufacturing sector. (NAN)