BUSINESS 74% of manufacturing firms rate biz ‘Monies outside banking environment unsupportive – Report system enough to revamp Nigerian economy’

Atotal of 74 per cent of manufacturing companies have rated the business environment in Nigeria this year as “unsupportive” due to unfavourable exchange rate, bad roads, energy scarcity, limited access to credit and policy inconsistency.

The 2017 Manufacturing Sector Survey conducted by NOIPolls and the Centre for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA) released, yesterday, in Abuja also identified lack of infrastructure, unstable power supply and weak demand as the top challenges facing the manufacturing sector in the country.

In 2016, 60 per cent manufacturing firms rated business environment in Nigeria as unsupportive. The 74 per cent recorded in 2017 represents a 14-point increase from the 2016 result, indicating a worsening of the business environment.

Presenting the report, yesterday, the Chief Executive Officer of NOIPolls, Dr. Bell Ihua, said lack of infrastructure, red-tapism and corruption were also identified as some of the structural bottlenecks stifling the business environment

The report showed that 85 per cent of manufacturing companies surveyed are not operating up to 75 per cent of their installed capacity.

It also revealed that 48 per cent of the companies interviewed considered importation of raw materials critical to their production; particularly medium to large manufacturing companies, with up to 62 per cent of inputs imported.

The report also showed that 75 per cent of manufacturing companies say the disparity in foreign exchange rates has had negative impact on their operations.

Similarly, 80 per cent of the companies affirmed that inflation has had a negative effect on their businesses FLIGHT

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