The Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Mr. Ajayi Kadiri has said the manufacturing sector in the country is currently bleeding as a result of the state of the economy in recent times.
He gave this remark during an interview on the AriseTv Morning show when answering questions on organised labour’s negotiation with the federal government.
- Answering questions on why the government needs to ensure there is no further strike from labour unions, Mr Kadiri said, “The President needs to get the job done and there should be no excuse about how Nigerians should be able to continue with our lives.”
- “I mean, manufacturing is bleeding, we have had the exit of GSK, Unilever has had to discontinue three of its oldest branches and there are so many industries that have capacity utilisation not above 50% for a very long time.”
- “Inflation is at an 18-year high, the prognosis is not just right. Government needs to bend over backwards and meet the demands of labour. I don’t see how Nigerians can survive an indefinite strike”
FG and Labour negotiation
Speaking on whether organised labour should heed the Federal government’s demand for more time, Mr. Kadiri opined that such a request worries him because four months have passed since the new administration came on board and introduced reform.
He said such requests should be followed by concrete steps that the government will take and timelines of what will be done within the time.
Minimum wage
On whether the current minimum wage of N30,000 is adequate for the Nigerian worker,
- Mr Kadir said thus, “In the real sense N30,000 today in Nigeria is grossly inadequate for anyone to live on but we also know that the economy is going through trying times and coming from N18,000 to N30,000 may look like some form of improvement. I believe that there has to be a number of other supportive measures.”
But this the absolute truth. Production is down. The limited products being churned out are at expensive prices. There is weak demand while interest payment is rising. Yet we visited India. Is this how India treats it’s SMEs. At least, we see samples of indian simple manufacturing processes on Facebook. This government is not ready to put things right.
Yet the stock.exchange index is rising daily. Obviously the stock.market is in a different world of it’s own and has lost touch with reality. Kudos to institutional investors like the PFAs.