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By Merit Ibe
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has charged the Federal Government to come up with policies that will guarantee incentives for the real sector in order to make it more viable.
Chairman of MAN, Apapa branch, Frank Onyebu, who made the remark explained that entrepreneurs would only invest in an economy where they are sure of getting maximum returns on investment in the short-term.
He therefore implored government to make business environment friendly enough to attract foreign investors into the sector.
“The real sector of the economy can be revived by a deliberate policy of government through incentives to make it more viable than trading. Entrepreneurs would usually invest in businesses where they can get the maximum returns within the shortest possible time.
Therefore, if enough incentives are provided, investors will move in droves to exploit the opportunities provided. The government should also make business environment friendly enough to attract even foreign investors into the sector.”
The MAN boss noted that agriculture is another sector that needs to be revived, lamenting that it’s a shame that Nigerians have not exploited even 10 percent of the opportunities in the agricultural sector.
“It’s upsetting when you travel along our highways and find stretches upon stretches of fallow lands which could easily be turned into farmlands. It’s even more upsetting when you realise that the individuals who should be ploughing these lands are wasting in our cities looking for non-existent white-collar jobs. The government has to provide incentives for our youths to get involved in farming. The government can do this by providing basic amenities in the villages, providing subsidised farming implements, including machineries, fertiliser, etc. Industries will ultimately spring up in these villages to take advantage of available outputs from these farms,” Onyebu stressed.
On how to grow the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), the MAN boss advised that the government should work on drastically improving the ease of doing business, saying registration process should be simplified, efficiency should be instituted as a habit, and information should be easily available.
