▪︎Cover image: President Bola Tinubu

THE Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) says that unfavourable policies of the government forced some of its member companies to  laidoff a total of 3,567 workers in the first half of 2023.

This indicated, 855 more job lost when compared with the 1, 709 job lost in corresponding half of 2022 and 850 more jobs lost when compared with 2. 708 jobs lost in the last half of 2022.

Based on this, the Association is requesting the Federal Government to conduct a comprehensive economic impact assessment of the fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate changes, and other policy measures.

“This assessment should identify potential challenges and opportunities for the private sector and inform further adjustments to the policies if necessary,” said SegunAjayi-Kadir, the Director-General of MAN.

He pointed to the Association’s latest sectoral  Employment Survey results (January to June 2023) and said, ” employment generation of the manufacturing sector declined to 6, 428 in the first half of 2023.

This is an indication of 32.8 percent reduction in employment generation capacity when compared with 9559 jobs generated in the first half of 2022.

Also, the data showed a shed of 313 jobs when compared with 6, 741 jobs created in the second half of 2022. 

The decline in the number of jobs created in the sector during the period further highlighted the unfriendly business environment resulting from the hasty policies and residual effect of the currency redesign policy that led to naira crunch.

A Struggling Sector

Segun Ajayi-Kadir, noted that  the manufacturing sector faced myriad of challenges in the first half of 2023. 

He said that the residual effects of the Naira redesign and the removal of fuel subsidy towards the end of the period under review triggers inflationary pressure, cost of transportation, cost of production and other macroeconomics imbalances, thereby worsened the purchasing power of the households.

Unsold Inventory of Finished Products

Consequently, he disclosed that  the inventory of unsold finished products in the manufacturing sector saw a significant increase to N271.96 billion during the first half of 2023, as compared to N187.08 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2022.

” This indicates a substantial rise of N84.88 billion or 45.4 percent over this timeframe.

However, there was an N11.64 billion or 4.1 percent decline when compared with the inventory value of N283.6 billion recorded in the second half of 2022.

This increase in inventory can be attributed to a weakened purchasing power of the consumers, brought about by diminishing real household income resulting from the ongoing escalation of inflationary pressures, compounded by the scarcity of naira in the first quarter of the year and the aftermath of the subsidy removal,” he said.