Manufacturers Blame Bad Road for Delay in Delivery of Raw Materials

Seun Abiola I

Organised private sector under the aegis of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has raised alarm over recurrent traffic gridlock on the port access roads.
The OPS said the traffic gridlock especially on the Oshodi-Apapa expressway has delayed delivery of raw materials to various warehouses.
The Director-General of MAN, Mr Segun Ajayi-Kadir indicated that raw materials still take between one or two weeks before getting to warehouses.
Highlighting that gridlock at the ports since the beginning of the year had taken severe toll on the manufacturing sector, the Director General posited that though there had been noticeable improvement in road infrastructure, the cost of transportation had remained high, because, when the roads are bad, transporters would naturally charge more.
Subsequently, he stressed the need for more attention to be focused on the rehabilitation of the railways, so as to boost the movement of goods across the country.
Speaking on the financial climate, Ajayi-Kadir frowned on the interest rate regime at the bank, noting that something must be done, urgently.
“MAN has always maintained and seriously too, that, if you borrow a manufacturer fund at anything more than five per cent, you are really not doing any help.
“Gone are the days when you talk of single digit. Single digit more than five per cent is not good because you know manufacturing has a long gestation period.
“And because of the inadequacy of infrastructure and the macro-economic environment in which we operate, it will be very difficult for a manufacturer to make anything meaningful out of funds borrowed at more than five per cent”, he stated.

He further called for the recapitalization of the Bank of Industry (BoI); and the effective take-off of the Development Bank of Nigeria.
He maintained, that manufacturers were presently unable to borrow effectively from commercial banks because many commercial banks lend on short-term and never on long term basis.
He argued that the recapitalisation of BOI would create more funds for working capital for manufacturers; and lauded the government for coming up with several initiatives like the Ease of Doing Business; Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) which took off from the industrial revelation plan. He explained that the initiatives would ameliorate the challenges of the economy and enable the manufacturing sector focus more.
It would be recalled that only last week, a heavy downpour was reported to have forced Customs Service servers and other equipment to malfunction, and created new rooms for importers to pay more demurrage.