BCI laments tottering industrial sector,
charts way forward
By Ntai Bagshaw
Development Reporter, Lagos
“The first six months of the year gave some glimmer of
hope, even though the industrial sector is still going through very difficult
times with obvious negative effects on the service sector.” The Business
Club Ikeja (BCI) - a body of entrepreneurs, spanning all sectors of the
economy - gave this verdict in Lagos, as it reviewed the half-year
performance of the nation’s economy.
The association said despite marginal improvements in
some sectors, projections for major economic indicators like inflation,
interest and exchange rates, were yet to be achieved. “Projections for
single-digit inflation rate fell flat, as inflation averaged about 19.4 per
cent in May, this year, as against the 14 per cent in December, last
year,” BCI said, charging: “The worst case scenario prevailed in
bank lending rates, which swung from the 19 per cent level to about 25 per
cent,” BCI said.
The entrepreneurs lamented that the high lending
rate was partly responsible for the collapse of the manufacturing base of the
economy. According to them, manufacturers could ill-afford to borrow at this
“killer rate”, more so when locally made goods were expected to compete
with those from other countries, whose interest rates are between two and five
per cent. For the second half of the year, the industrialists advised that
attention be paid to improving national security; stemming high interest and
inflation rates; improving electricity supply; raising industrial capacity
utilisation; and avoiding incessant labour strikes.
Reeling out its report tagged, “The Nigerian
Economy: A new beginning,” the association, however, said achievements
were recorded in government’s deregulation and anti-corruption drive. It
hailed the marked improvements in the operations of regulatory agencies like
the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFCDAC) and
the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), as well as progress in the
telecommunication sub-sector. “Adulterated products are gradually being
eradicated out of the market, while genuine local manufacturers can stay in
business with a more level playing ground with competition. We wish that these
agencies would continue to intensify their efforts to checkmate unwholesome
activities,” BCI said.
