MAN cautions FG on taxes and tariffs increment
- Matthew Denis
- Jul 13, 2015
- 2 min read
Chairperson, Kwara and Kogi States Branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Princess Omolola Olobayo said that the tariffs on imported raw materials and taxes paid to different government agencies should be reduced to create a favourably environment for investment.
The Chairperson said this while speaking with Pilot Business in an interview in Ilorin at the weekend, adding that manufacturers are still struggling in Nigeria and if they are forced to pay 33 tariffs to various agencies, there is no way they could survive.
Olobayo stated that there is no sector in the nation's economy creating jobs opportunity like the manufacturers, saying that majority of them have minimum of 1,000 staff on their pay roll.
According to her, the Federal government should encourage Medium Small Scales Enterprises with intervention funds where young graduates can start manufacturing a particular item.
The Central Bank of Nigeria has recently released an intervention funds for real sectors, MSSE and others running to almost N9,000 billion but the same government is not calling stakeholders meeting on how to access the funds.
The commercial banks are not equally encouraging their customers (manufacturers and SMSE) to access this funds because they will be getting the loans at 9 per cent from CBN instead of the 28 per cent from the banks.
On the issue of security, she stated that no manufacturer would be satisfied with the security situation in the country as it posed great threat to their investments.
"I want to you to know that Maiduguri is gateway for manufacturers in Nigeria. It is from the state our neighbouring countries come to carry our stocks to their countries but that has stopped now because of the security challenges", the MAN Boss lamented.
Noting that there are many challenges facing the manufacturing sector in Nigeria, Olobayo enjoined government to support production in textile, steel, pharmaceutical, oil industry, automobile, agriculture, marble, mining and furniture sectors to boost the economy.
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