The National President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs, on Friday put the daily cost incurred by its members in generating electricity to power their industries at over N9 billion.
Speaking at the sideline during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, in his office in Abuja, he described the supply of power from the national grid as horrible, adding that the majority of manufacturers still generate their electricity to power their machines.
He said: “From last year, nothing has changed in the sector. We all know that in terms of generating power, our members spend billions of naira in generating power and this is going up daily because we are daily increasing capacity. I think, it is more than N9 billion daily”
Jacobs however declined to comment on the foreign exchange restriction imposed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on its members to source for raw materials.
He said: “Well there is a negotiation going on now between MAN and CBN over that policy, so I wouldn’t like to comment on that because there is an on-going discussion on that.
“I had phone call from the CBN governor yesterday concerning our comments on the newspaper on what is going on and what is happening to manufacturing as result of the foreign exchange crunch.
“And he told me that they are going to deliberate on this and likely I will be going there very soon.”
