Expo to revamp Nigeria’s manufacturing sector
By Charles Okonji
The manufacturing sector which is the worst hit by the Covid 19 pandemic, organizers of the Equipment and Manufacturing West Africa (EMWA) 2021, Zenith Exhibitions, has announced plans to reposition the nation’s manufacturing industry with its premier tradeshow for manufacturing, engineering, machinery and supporting industries.
The Managing Director, Zenith Exhibitions, Joseph Oru, explained that the unprecedented times experienced in the last 13 months caused by the pandemic has forced the need for manufacturers to stretch possibilities to figure out new ways of doing old things, maintaining that business conversations must commence as it is a tool for growth and recovery.
Oru stated this on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of EMWA exhibition and conference 2021 at the Landmark centre in Lagos.
“The pandemic caught every sector unaware, but what we have seen is the private sector growing bigger to say we need to restart businesses and this is one of the reasons we are doing this. We need more support from the public sector and I am sure the State government so much to create a conducive business environment for businesses to grow.” he said.
“Exhibition enhances businesses and in the last four years, we have seen companies that do not have offices in the country explore the markets we have and most of the companies present today are plugging into ten years plan because of our huge middle class,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner, Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Lagos State, Sam Egube, said power supply has continued to remain a challenge for the manufacturing industry, pointing out that the Lagos State government is seeking ways to improve the power systems within Lagos.
“We are currently considering a policy that will strengthen the partnership between the Lagos State government and the distribution companies to facilitate investment in the power sector, because today the major challenge is not in the generation of power even though there is still a lot of generation need required, there is also the need to strengthen the infrastructure capacity in terms of transmission and distribution within Lagos,” he said.
In his words, “There are issues around tariffs, there are issues around expansion of the network and their issues around metering. We are partnering the private sector to improve the metering situation and working with the Discos to improve the power supply. We are also looking at what kind of policies we can push beyond what the federal government is doing to try and improve the power service we have in Lagos.”
He added that the Lagos State government is investing significantly and aggressively in infrastructure to ensure that trade is facilitated around Lagos, noting that Lagos controls a significant amount of movement and logistics around Nigeria.
According to him, the conference is an opportunity for exhibitors to interact, experience latest innovations, new equipment in the manufacturing environment to drive the nation’s industrial sector.
