Taiwo Hassan 
Following the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN’s) report that the over 200 per cent electricity tariff, unreliable grid power and subsidy removal in the prices of diesel and PMS pushed up manufacturers’ total expenditure on alternative energy sources to N1.11 trillion in 2024, members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) have warned that this is not sustainable any longer in short-term, as the wheel of production of many manufacturing firms is on the verge of being grounded.
In addition, the private sector group also warned that high energy costs being fuelled by subsidy removal of PMS, diesel and constant electricity tariffs hike are drifting more Nigerians deeper into poverty levels, raising the alarm this could lead to more uprising and agitation nationwide, if the government of President Bola Tinubu fails to do something urgently in terms of fiscal measures to tame the plight of the masses.
Specifically, the private sector group, comprising business membership organisations (BMOs), Chambers of Commerce and the business community, stated that lots of manufacturing companies are being confronted with challenges arising from high energy costs and constant hike in electricity tariffs, saying reports have shown they are on the verge of a halt in their production process.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with New Telegraph in Lagos, a former board member of MAN, renowned supply chain expert and board member of African Centre for Supply Chain (ACSC), Dr Madu Obiora, explained that industrial firms are experiencing disruptions in their daily production of manufactured goods amid high energy costs, subsidy removal and rising electricity tariffs hike, which is about bringing production of firms to a halt.
Similarly, he noted that Nigerians are getting poorer and poorer on a daily basis, with decreasing purchasing power to feed their families warning that another uprising by masses or nationwide protests could pose more inimical consequences for the country, economy and both short- and long-term investments.
Obiora explained that no sensible foreign investor will come to a country like Nigeria to set up factory where insecurity, high electricity tariffs, instability in the economy, high costs of energy and others are spiraling. his words: “It’s not about the attraction of FDI into Nigeria. What about the survival of those who are already here!
That is the survival of the companies that are already here operating. FDI coming into a country is the function of a lot of things, not just removing electricity subsidy so that is not it.
“So, I think if we continue to go the way we are going, the wheel of production will ground to a halt at a certain point in time, soon. I’m telling you because manufacturers are already bleeding. And I used the word bleeding exactly.
I told them as I was speaking in a live television programme in Lagos (and the Customs people were there) and I said to them, I can’t blame you people; it’s not your fault at all, because at the beginning of every year, they give you people a target to meet and you start chasing the target, immediately.
You are collecting levies and tariffs from people who are expecting that you are not contributing anything or a dime into it.
So it’s very unfortunate. “See, do you know that in Malaysia, when budget is being done every year, the prime minister will invite the stakeholders in the manufacturing industry, the SMEs and the others ASAF described Oborevwori and Okowa’s defection as a “turning point in APC’s control of the South-South”.
It welcomed Delta State House of Assembly members into the ASAF and encouraged them to align with to sit down with him and ask: where are your biggest pinpoints?
Where are the low hanging fruits? Where should we start attacking them? “So no budget is good as that where a president of the country is the number one supporter of the MSMEs.
So, is it by accident that over 80 per cent of Malaysian manufacturing products are into export? But in Nigeria’s clime, they (local manufacturers) are already bleeding; so whatever things they want to do for FDIs, as they are expecting, they will not come.
What of those people who are already here? Do you want to kill them in the process of an expectant something that will not happen? I think it is absolutely lack of understanding and lack of care.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a top shot in Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), told New Telegraph.
