By Franklin Alli
Manufacturers have identified deregulation, amnesty program as well as credit squeeze in the banking sector as the main forces that would influence the economy in 2010.

Looking back at development in, they said  there is  not much to cheer about 2010 as forces that hammered the economy last year  would likely persist in the new year, citing as example, federal government  inability meet the  6,000 megawatts of electricity supply by year end.  As a result, small, medium and multinational companies have had to rely absolutely on alternative power generating plants.

The cost per month or annually has remained unbearable to manufacturers, causing many factories to close down or temporary shut production with the attendant job loses.  Looking back, President, Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN), Alhaji Bashir Borodo, declared that 2009 was very tough.

He noted that the slight improvement in public power supply during the last quarter of the year was due to calm in the Niger Delta following Federal Government’s Amnesty Initiative which he said had starting working and hoped it would be sustained  in 2010 because, as he puts it, a lot depend on it. Power supply and sustaining the amnesty are linked, because the thermal power plants are totally dependent on gas supply and militancy in the Niger Delta would  affect gas supply.  “We hope 2010 would be better,” he said.

Corroborating, on the need to sustain the Amnesty, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) noted that the continued military disposition by a major militant group Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), might fuel crisis in the region again.

“We urge the distinguished Nigerians that have been named by MEND as negotiators to offer themselves as a constructive bridge between the government and the militants in the interest of the country. Having said that, we advise government acting in concert with the National Assembly to address the issues of rehabilitation of all the militants that have embraced the amnesty in keeping faith with the assurance of government.  It is important to live up to this pledge,” said LCCI in a position statement.

The economy may continue to be tough this year going by the deregulation brouhaha. The fact on the ground shows that major oil marketers will continued pushing for full deregulation of the down stream  petroleum sector.

The nationwide fuel scarcity and  hoarding by fuel stations especially during the yuletide periods lent credence to fears that stakeholders in the oil and gas industry wont rest on their oars until deregulation is fully implemented by government.

The National President of the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) Dr. Simeon Chukwuemeka Okolo, observed that a well planned and implemented deregulation scheme is not only good but very imperative for the Nigerian economy since it could end the ceaseless cycle of fuel scarcity, waste and crippling corruption in the downstream sub sector of the oil industry.

“A deregulation scheme that do not dismantle government price fixing machinery like the Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency, the Petroleum Equalization Fund and the corruption ridden Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will only unleashed more hardships on the people and wipe out the already crippled Nigerian businesses tethering on the precipice due to high cost of energy.

Amid Nigeria’s ceaseless   power outages”, he said, and pointed out that true deregulation must address the issue of ownership and control of essential infrastructure, the issue of private refineries; private sector participation in the ownership of pipeline and maritime loading and discharge points.

He said government failure to enact any laws to aid proper deregulation, no effort to repair government refineries or privatize them has brought to the fore and convinced Nigerians that government is not really interest in the tenets of real deregulation of the down stream sector of the petroleum industry but to hike prices to rake up more money for government that could end up in the bottomless pockets of corrupt public officials.

According to him, official price fixing is alien to the kind of liberalized environment that is capable of encouraging a diversified fuel supply base or encourage a new market oriented machine that will create jobs for local refiners even as it opens up the extensive opportunities in petrochemicals to local investors.