The Chairman, Board of Directors, Manufacturers Power Development Company, Ibrahim Usman, speaks on how unstable power supply is adversely affecting the manufacturing sector.
In his words he said, In some countries, power takes only about 10% of their production. In Nigeria, power, sometimes, takes up to 50% of our production cost. So, how can we be competitive? There is no way our goods can be competitive. With the African Continental Free Trade, which is coming up, it is a very big challenge for Nigeria. Our goods cannot be competitive when electricity alone can take up to 40% of your production cost. It is a very big challenge.
This has cost some manufacturing companies to shutdown. We have said it several times. The government can subsidize the cost of our diesel. They can make sure that the eligible customer scheme gets off. Eligible customer scheme is very very important to our customers and government has not put its foot down. We have complained to Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission that the eligible customer scheme should be allowed to take off so that we can mop up the excess power in the country right now. So, these are areas the government can come in to make things easy for everybody.
-Punch