Unnecessary electioneering activities may harm Nigeria economy in 2018-MAN President

 

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said economy improvement witnessed in 2017 may hindered by electioneering in 2018.
Speaking on the 2018 outlook at the MAN’s annual media luncheon, President of the group, Dr. Frank Jacobs said expected excessive focus on electioneering activities will cause lower concentration on the economy.
The advocacy’s group believed that, improved crude oil price in the international market would improve availability of forex for importation of needed raw materials and machinery accessories.
Although, he believed that increased capital expenditure as proposed in the 2018 budget, if followed by actual release of funds, will narrow the infrastructure gap in the economy.
Speaking on achievement of MAN in 2017, Dr. Jacobs said, the association, in its usual practice, engaged government at all levels, including Ministries, Departments and Agencies on a number of issues affecting the manufacturing sector in particular and the Nigerian economy in general.
“The Association, as part of the enlarged Organized Private Sector, successfully sustained the quarterly meeting with the Presidency. On many occasions during the year, the leadership of the Association met the Acting President/Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, Ministers and other top Government functionaries, where the challenges of our members were presented to elicit solutions. Our deliberations with the Government, especially at the quarterly meetings, contributed immensely to recent positive policy measures of the Government, some of which are already yielding results.”
He further that, significant improvement in Foreign Exchange (Forex) management policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria, which did not only improve forex supply but also made allocation to the sector a priority, at that time, was as a result of MAN sustained engagement with the Central Bank Governor.
“Our robust engagement with the Management of the Central Bank of Nigeria also led to the review of the list of 41 items not valid for official forex allocation. In the process some items earlier excluded were restored for forex allocation. We are still exerting pressure on the relevant agencies to ensure that all raw materials that were erroneously included in the exclusion list are restored.”
Our advocacy further helped to facilitate the resuscitation of Export Expansion Grant (EEG) and the modification of the same to include transferability of the Negotiable Export Credit Certificate (NECC) which can now be used for settlement of all Federal Government taxes such as Company Income Tax, VAT, WHT, etc, Jacobs stressed.
Speaking on what associations outlook for the year 2018, Jacobs stated that, MAN would maintain the advocacy against the admission of Morocco to the membership of ECOWAS due to perceived negative implications of this to the economy of Nigeria.
He said MAN would ensure that government abolish multiple taxation and its unorthodox mode of collection by the three tiers of governments.
“We will encourage the sustenance of the campaign for patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products and advocate for sector-specific incentives for national economic development”, he said.