 Director of the Association of Nigeria and the person of Mr. Shegun Ajayikadir. Good morning and welcome to the program, sir. Thank you very much. Good morning. Oh, director. Thank you. I'll be me. I'm the director. Director General of the Manufacturer's Association of Nigeria. Yes. Okay. There was a comment yesterday by Senator Ben Murray-Bruce. Was it yesterday or the day before yesterday calling on people to patronize made in Nigeria goods. And the challenge that a lot of people have always been saying is that sometimes made in Nigerian goods are even more costly. And then there's the issue of quality and all that. So first of all, let's look at the challenges you are facing as manufacturers associated of Nigeria. What is it that is that very big challenge that is making manufacturing, which would also give us the exporting capacity in our country so low? What are those challenges, especially in light of the fact that the president has just said the unification of the Naira and fuel subsidy removal, the government has achieved the desired aim. So let's get to hear from the manufacturers Association of Nigeria because a lot depends on what you can or cannot do. Yes. I think it's a very good way to start seeing that there are already issues about why our goods appear to be more expensive. And I believe that we should have an opportunity to really interrogate the issues. But the challenge is that the manufacturers face quite enormous. Some of them have to do with infrastructure. Others have to do with the fiscal environment, the monetary environment, and even the external environment. As you are aware, the Nigerian economy does not operate in isolation. It is interconnected with international trade and is of course engaged in competition with goods that come from other countries. But let's focus more on those internal challenges that have continued to limit the performance of the manufacturing sector. Chief among them is infrastructure. When you talk of infrastructure, you talk of power, you talk of roads, you talk of the ports, which is critical to manufacturing business, and then you talk of the utilities that goes into the manufacturing process. You even talk about the issue of insecurity. All of those have come in inadequate measures, and so it will impact seriously on your cost. To a manufacturer, for instance, power is about between 30% to 40% of its cost structure. And when you know that average manufacturer does not get up to 40% of the power requirements from the national grid, it has to rely on self-power generation. You know what the price of diesel is, and it has increased by more than 300% between the last three years, and so manufacturing costs have tended to go up. Then you think of the policy environment. You look at fiscal measures, multiple taxation, there's no manufacturer in Nigeria that does not pay more than 30 taxes, levies, or licenses. Then this makes it impossible for you to plan. You are not even able to know ahead of time what you are going to pay in any given financial year. Then you have the issue of forex, foreign exchange for you to be able to import those raw materials, machines, and spare parts that are not available locally, but are required for your domestic production. The rate of forex is so high, and the savings costs you cannot get. When you go to the parallel market, you get it at rates that does not allow you to procure those raw materials and produce at competitive price. Then you have access to credit. The average lending rates in Nigeria now is between 36% to 28%. You cannot do any manufacturing exercise and make profit with this type of facility, and the special proposed vehicles like the Bank of Industry that you have is not liquid enough to provide for the demand calculus. In man, for instance, we have 2,500 members that operate in 10 sectors and more than 70 sub-sectors spread across the country. The financial institutions cannot support the credit requirements of this organization. Then there is the issue of general ease of doing business in terms of regulation. Most of the regulatory agencies are virtually turned to revenue-generating agencies. So the cost of licenses, the cost of compliance is very high. Then you have the lack of patronage. There are quite a number of people who do not believe in patronage of made-in-Nigerian products. Of course, we know that you have to make good products, which I believe will stay discordant. But even government itself, despite the existence of initiatives that are supposed to prioritize patronage of made-in-Nigerian products, does not patronize made-in-Nigerian products. So there are quite a number of challenges that limit the performance of the sector and which has made it to contribute always between 8% to 11% to the GDP, and that is not the case among our peers. I'm concerned about this patronage of made-in-Nigerian products. Is the low patronage a product of awareness that is not enough or a product of a bad policy that needs to be changed? Yes, you have just captured some of the most significant reasons for it. In terms of policy and which is what I want to put across, there are policies that exist only in the bridge. We have the executive order 003 and 005. Those are supposed to boost patronage of made-in-Nigerian products and to deepen the local content of our economy. But even government itself has operated this in the bridge. If you look at the National Assembly, for instance, there are 360 members of the House of Rep and 109 members in the Senate. All the vehicles they use are not made in Nigeria, even though we have credible local assemblers that have even expanded the local content of the parts that we have. Then you talk of the furnishing of their offices. You look at the more than 500 para statas, departments of government, that do not prioritize the patronage of made-in-Nigerian products. The excuse that is always given about quality is absolutely false, because there are regulatory agencies like NAVDAC and some that ensures quality of our products. I'm not talking about manufacturers who operate in the fringe, and you have them in so many countries around the world. We are talking about manufacturers that operate within those regulations, and those are the people we have in our membership. Our products have good quality, and as a matter of fact, they are the most reliable because especially those products that have expiry dates and those products that require guidance on how it should be used, you are aware of the on-towards activities of importers. Who will go to any length to even alter expiry dates and confuse the buyer with change of names and operating in the dark markets? So it cannot be an excuse that our products are not of good quality. In terms of awareness, of course, I believe you will be covered aside with what man is doing, together with his members, to push the issue of buying made in Nigeria. Many of those who purchase products are limited by their disposable income, and when you talk of our costs, sometimes those that we compete with in terms of price are those who have brought in the products without either not paying the right duty or they are accurately smuggled. I'm sure the story of rice is not for everybody to see, and there are quite a number of sectors that have had to compete with unfair pricing, either because the right duties are not paid or because those products are smuggled. All those countries deliberately jumping into the domestic market in such a way that they are able to reduce the capacity or even eliminate local competition, then they will be able to up their prices. All these combine to make it appear as if the prices of local products are high. This is not to take away the fact that even the cost of production in the economy itself has left you with no option than to sell at a price that will allow you to have profit. If you call your price at all, then you are left with no choice than to put it on the consumer. Okay, Mr. Khadri, let me just get a promise from you if it is possible. Can we continue this conversation, say on Thursday, because there are so many things that we need to talk about that we cannot cover in the space of ten minutes that was allocated to this segment. So if it is possible to expand more on this kind of things and look at critical policies that need to be brought into the system so that you can work better, it will be a more engaging discussion, a more rewarding discussion. Can I get that promise for Thursday morning? Yes, I have not checked my program, but it is always a pleasure to speak with you. I will try to make sure that I do that. Okay, alright, thank you so much. Well, this is how much we can take for today from you. Thank you for being a part of the program this morning. Thank you for having me. Okay. We are talking with the director of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, the Director General Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Shegun Ajaye Khadri, and we are talking about the challenges of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria and why people don't patronize made in Nigeria goods. We are going to try, he has promised us that if it is possible to bring him back on Thursday to talk more about things that need to be done by this government that wants to give Nigeria a new lease of life as they say, but for now that's how much we can take. We'll take a short break and when we return, we'll be looking at the future of the Nigerian theatre and the power of telling our own Nigerian stories. We'll be joined by Joseph Edgar, stay with us.