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By Merit Ibe
As the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) joins Nigeria to celebrate its 62nd anniversary, the chamber has advised that the Federal Government needs to sustain its targeted interventions in critical sectors like agriculture, manufacturing, export infrastructure, tackling insecurity and free up more money from subsidy payments for a better economy.
Director General of the chamber,, Chinyere Almona, in a statement noted that the quality of the business environment remains a concern to investors, especially in the real sector. “Weak infrastructure, uncertain policy environment and institutions have continued to adversely affect the efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of many enterprises in the economy.
“These conditions pose a major risk to job creation and economic inclusion across sectors.”
Almona said in the last 62 years, the economy has significantly transformed from a largely independent agrarian economy to a net importer of finished goods, lamenting that now, the economy is financed mainly by oil revenue, which has exposed it to the effects of external shocks.
She emphasised that over the last few decades, the challenges of production in the economy have grown progressively largely because of the quality of infrastructure, which is why the risk of industrial investment is high and continues to increase.
“The various policy interventions have not had the desired impact on the sector. Unless there is effective and sustained protection and support for the sector and a dramatic improvement in infrastructure, the outlook for the sector will remain gloomy, particularly for the small-scale industries.
“Most SMEs are constrained due to the rising cost of production.”
The LCCI boss who posited that It is impossible to have a vibrant manufacturing sector in the face of cheap imports into the country and high production and operating cost in the domestic economy, added that some of these imports are landing at 50% of the cost of products produced locally. She said besides, manufacturers have to worry about high energy costs; high-interest rates – 25% and above; multitude of regulatory agencies making different demands on them; massive smuggling and under-invoicing of imports, trade facilitation issues at the seaports and many more.
“For most manufacturing SMEs, it is a nightmare. Yet, production is critical to enduring economic and social stability.”
Proffering the way forward, Almona noted that the fundamental constraints to manufacturing competitiveness in the economy needs to be addressed.
“In reality, job losses in the sector have increased over the decades as productivity declined on the back of the difficult operating environment.
“Our nation is at a cross-road and in dire need of big decisions to drive the drastic transformation the economy requires to return to economic prosperity.
“Our nation, Nigeria, has come a long way and is too big to fail.
“The Chamber wishes the Government and people of Nigeria a happy 62nd Independence anniversary celebration.
” We urge the Government to tackle oil theft to earn more foreign exchange, borrow from cheaper sources to reduce the burden of debt servicing, and take a decisive step towards removing fuel subsidies.
“The growth of 1.2% recorded for agriculture and the 3% for manufacturing are comparatively low when compared with other sectors that grew at above 5%. This is also indicative of the threats facing these sectors that power Nigeria’s real sector. The woes in these two sectors are responsible for the frightening rise in our inflation rate. And with the excruciating burden from debt service, subsidy payments, and worsening insecurity, many more production activities may be constrained in the coming months.
