Taiwo Hassan 
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has disclosed that it will be difficult to achieve a $1 trillion economy by 2030 if manufacturing sector’s growth rate of six per cent average targeted by the present administration is not achieved.
MAN said that the meagre 2.18 per cent growth rate in the manufacturing sector was being choked with interest rate hikes, high exchange rates, and escalated energy costs.
Apparently, the regulatory body for all local manufacturers warned that the service sub-sector regularly dominating the composition of the country’s GDP and its pattern of growth posed a significant drawback for the industrialisation agenda in the country.
In other words, MAN maintained that as the services sector continually booms at the detriment of employment and production in the manufacturing sector, the economy is set to fail in its aspirations of reducing forex demand pressures, promoting value addition, generating mass employment, increasing export earnings, driving industrial-led growth, and ensuring sustainable development.
The Director-General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who made this known to New Telegraph in Lagos, said it was unfortunate the manufacturing sector was one of the least growing sectors during the period under review, with a growth rate of 2.18 per cent.
While lamenting the slow pace of growth in the manufacturing sector, Ajayi-Kadir explained that, undoubtedly, the underperformance in the sector in the period under review underscored the harsh effect of hostile economic policies, which have largely constrained the country’s goal of rapid industrialisation and have left the economy struggling for survival.
To him, the government has not done enough to react positively to the the yearnings and requests made by MAN hierarchy to them for prompt movement of the manufacturing sector and the economy in general.
He said: “Unfortunately, the Nigerian government has been characterised by its passive response towards the countless challenges battling the manufacturing sector.”
Speaking on the breakdown of manufacturing sector performance, the MAN helmsman noted that an indepth examination of the report showed that the fastest-growing manufacturing subsectors were Chemical & Pharmaceutical Products (3.97 per cent). Food, Beverage & Tobacco (1.76 per cent), Wood & Wood Products (2.16 per cent), Cement (2.30 per cent), Pulp, Paper and Paper Products (2.09 per cent), Electrical and Electronics (2.61 per cent), and Non-Metallic Products (1.75 per cent).
Also, the top five contributors to manufacturing output were Food, Beverage & Tobacco (6.78 per cent), Cement (3.73 per cent), Electrical and Electronics (6.03 per cent), Non-Metallic Products (2.87 per cent). and Chemical & Pharmaceutical Products (6.92 per cent).
Food, Beverage & Tobacco, Chemical & Pharmaceutical Products and Cement were the only sub-sectors that made the list of both the top five growing and contributing sub-sectors in the second quarter of 2024.
He added: “In general, the report revealed that the growth of the manufacturing sector grew slowly year-on-year at 0.92 per cent and decelerated quarter-onquarter by 0.35 per cent.
“Simi – larly, its contribution to GDP in the 2024 third quarter was 8.21 per cent, lower than the 8.42 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2023 and lower than the 8.46 per cent recorded in the second quarter of 2024.”
The NBS reported that Nigeria’s economy recorded a significant improvement in the third quarter of 2024, with a growth rate of 3.46 per cent compared to 2.54 per cent in the same period of 2023 and 3.19 per cent in the previous quarter.
The NBS attributed this growth primarily to the performance of the Services sector. Based on sectoral performance, the report revealed that the agriculture sector grew by 1.14 per cent, down from the 1.30 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2023.
Meanwhile, the services sector grew by 5.19 per cent and contributed 53.58 per cent to the GDP during the same period.
