By Aliyu DANLADI
Mr Wale Adegbite, a former Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Ogun Chapter, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to redouble its efforts in addressing bottlenecks confronting manufacturers at the nation’s seaports.
TBI Africa said that Adegbite made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ota, Ogun, on Wednesday.
The manufacturer said that the challenges at the country’s ports had increased the cost of bringing in raw materials and other goods into the country.
According to him, it takes longer time to bring goods out of the ports and to destinations due to several processes and bad roads.
Adegbite said the Federal Government should address the problems so that manufacturers could operate at the optimal level.
He urged Buhari to continue to improve access to lower interest rate for the manufacturers in order to bring in more equipment that would boost their production.
“The only way the Buhari led-administration could do this is to increase the funds made available to the Bank of Industry (BOI).
“If more funds are available to the BOI, there will be more funds for the manufacturers at cheaper interest rate that would improve economic activities in the country,’’ the manufacturer said.
Adegbite urged the Federal Government to redouble its efforts in improving infrastructure like transport network and stable power supply to reduce the cost of production by manufacturers.
He suggested an improvement in human capital development by providing adequate facilities to schools in the country.
Adegbite said that the roles of human capital in the development of any nation could not be over-emphasised.
