MAN advocates for govt incentive-driven policies to grow real sector

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has tasked the government to come up with policies that will guarantee incentives for the real sector of the economy in order to make the sector more viable.

The Chairman, Apapa branch of MAN, Engr Frank Onyebu, who disclosed this to Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN), during a news briefing, declared that entrepreneurs would only invest in an economy where they are sure of getting maximum returns on investment in the short-term.

“The real sector of the economy can be revived by a deliberate policy of government through incentives to make the sector more viable than trading. Entrepreneurs would usually invest in businesses where they can get the maximum returns within the shortest possible time.

“Therefore if enough incentives are provided, investors will move in droves to exploit the opportunities provided. The government should also make business environment friendly enough to attract even foreign investors into the sector”, Onyebu said.

Onyebu cited agriculture as another sector that needs reviving, but bemoaned that it is a shame that Nigerians have not exploited even 10 percent of the opportunities in the agricultural sector.

“It’s upsetting when you travel along our highways and find stretches upon stretches of fallow lands which could easily be turned into farmlands. It’s even more upsetting when you realise that the individuals who should be ploughing these lands are wasting in our cities looking for non-existent white-collar jobs.

“The government has to provide incentives to our youths to get involved in farming. The government can do this by providing basic amenities in the villages, providing subsidised farming implements, including machineries, fertilizer, etc. Industries will ultimately spring up in these villages to take advantage of available outputs from these farms, ” MAN chairman emphasized.

Commenting on Foreign Direct Investment, he hinted that the government should work on drastically improving the Ease of Doing Business, stressing that registration process should be simplified, efficiency should be instituted as a habit, while information should be easily available.

He affirmed that there should also be consistency in government policies, while corruption should be completed eliminated.

Commenting on security, he cautioned that conscious measures be put in place to improve the security situation in the country, adding that most investors would think twice about investing in a country with seemingly insurmountable security challenges.

He pointed out that the opening of the land borders is a welcome development.

In his words: “The borders should never have been closed in the first place if government officials who should have been policing them were doing their jobs. Customs, immigration and other security operatives should be held accountable if they are not doing their job.

“It is a well known fact that our borders are very porous. The thing about border closures is that legal activities cease but illegal activities continue. The government needs to find a way of properly securing our borders so that the need for future border closures will be eliminated.

“The need for a property secured border becomes even more important when the African Continental Free Trade Area agreement as comes into place,” Onyebu concluded.