MAN raises alarm over FTZ abuses, urges FG to set up special task force to protect local manufacturers
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has called on the Federal Government to set up a Special Task Force to help it recover lost revenue from the unpleasant activities of some Free Trade Zones (FTZs) operators in Nigeria over the years.
Chairman of the Basic Metals, Iron and Steel Manufacturers Sectoral Group of the Association, Prince Lekan Adewoye who made the call in a chat with the media in Abuja bemoaned the weak regulatory oversight in FTZs especially with regards to necessary value addition to raw materials imported to the Zones, export into the Customs territory and trading with related entities.
He highlighted that the Government is losing a lot in revenue, due to flagrant under invoicing of finished and semi-finished products imported as purported raw materials into the Zones with all the incentives provided by Government, which finally find ways into the Customs territory without any value addition.
The MAN Sectoral Group Chairman explained that these untoward activities undermine genuine local manufacturers operating in the Customs territory leading to shut downs and massive loss of jobs by Nigerians.
He cited an example of a member company of the Sectoral group in Ogun State scrapping nearly 80% of the installed capacity over unfair competition with operators in the Igbesa FTZ.
According to him, “If this situation persists, many more steel manufacturers will collapse, and we risk losing not just investments but also jobs and industrial capacity built over decades. The government must urgently intervene to restore sanity and fairness to the FTZs system before local industries are driven into extinction.”
Prince Adewoye averred that the Basic Metals and Iron & Steel sector is the backbone of any nation’s industrial development, adding that the sector has overwhelmingly supported the Tinubu administration’s economic diversification and industrialization goals through import substitution and value addition, employment generation and MSME development, industrial integration as well as local production, in spite of daunting challenges.
Speaking on the development, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Economic Zones Association, Toyin Elegbede affirmed that the association would not support any form of sabotage by its member organisations, adding that NEZA’s focus is towards the realization of the objectives for which the FTZs were created.
Elegbede disclosed that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is represented at the FTZs to inspect, certify and issue certificates of conformity for all goods being sold to the Customs territory.
On his part, Engr. Enebi Onucheyo, the SON Director, Product Certification acknowledged that the agency has since 2024 developed a scheme “Special Economic Zones Conformity Assessment Programme (SEZCAP), for the certification of goods into and out of the free trade zones to the Customs territory and it commenced its deployment recently.
The scheme, according to him, is an initiative to boost the production, importation, sales, and distribution of quality and safe manufactured products in the special economic zones into Nigeria and those to be exported to others parts of the world.
He emphasized that the SEZCAP is being implemented through SON State Offices having jurisdiction over the FTZs across the country.