Following the recent National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) pronouncement of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recorded a growth rate of 3.46 per cent in the third quarter of 2024, with the manufacturing sector at 2.18 per cent growth rate, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has disclosed that it will be very difficult to achieve a $1 trillion economy by 2030 if manufacturing sector’s growth rate of 6 per cent average targeted by the present administration is not achievable urgently in the country’s economy.

However, MAN said that the meagre 2.18 per cent growth rate in the manufacturing sector is being choked by interest rate hikes, high exchange rates, and escalated energy costs.

Apparently, the regulatory body for all local manufacturers warned that the service sub-sectors regularly dominate the composition of the country’s GDP and its pattern of growth poses a significant drawback for the industrialization 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 made this known to New Telegraph in Lagos that it was unfortunately, 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 in the Q3 2024 GDP report released by the NBS, Ajayi-Kadir explained that undoubtedly, the underperformance in the sector in the period under review underscores 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 reigning government has not done enough to react positively to the yearnings and requests made by the MAN hierarchy to them for prompt movement of the manufacturing sector and economy in general.

The MAN Director-General said: “Unfortunately, the Nigerian government has been characterized 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 in-depth examination of the report showed that the fastest-growing manufacturing sub-sectors 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), and 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-on-quarter by 0.35 per cent. “Similarly, 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 in the latest Q3 2024 GDP report 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

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