N1.35trn Power Cost, N3.53trn Raw Material Imports Choking Nigerian Manufacturers – MAN

Manufacturers spent N1.35 trillion on alternative power in 2025, up from N1.11 trillion in 2024, while raw material imports hit N3.53 trillion in six months, worsening Nigeria’s industrial competitiveness.

This was disclosed yesterday in Lagos at the opening ceremony of the Made-in-Nigeria Exhibition and the 54th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), themed: ‘Leveraging National Industrial Policy to Position Nigeria as Africa’s Industrial Hub’.

The president of MAN, Otunba Francis Meshioye, said while the sector has shown signs of improvement with real manufacturing output growing by 3.29 per cent year-on-year in Q1 2026 and capacity utilisation rising from 51.33 per cent in Q1 2025 to 57.50 per cent in Q2 2025, high energy costs are eroding gains.

“Energy remains one of the major cost factors. The expenditure supports business continuity but also places additional pressure on resources that could otherwise be applied to capacity expansion, technology acquisition and productivity improvement,” Meshioye said.

He also lamented Nigeria’s dependence on imported inputs, noting that of the N3.53 trillion raw materials imported in H1 2025, about N1.72 trillion was sourced from Asia alone.

“Increasing local production of finished goods without strengthening domestic production of raw materials and intermediate inputs will limit the extent of local value addition,” he warned.

To cushion the pressure and drive growth, Meshioye said the approaching national, state and local government elections present a strategic opportunity to boost industrial patronage.

“All should give priority to the patronage of made-in-Nigeria items at this electioneering period and at all times and in all cases,” he said, calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), political parties and other government agencies to source campaign materials, uniforms and logistics locally.

He urged President Bola Tinubu to fasttrack implementation of Executive Orders 003 and 005 and the Nigeria First Policy, which mandate MDAs to patronise local goods, insisting that MDAs that fail to comply should be sanctioned.

Supporting the call, the director general of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Prof. Ayo Omotayo, said Nigeria cannot achieve a $1 trillion economy if manufacturing continues to contribute only 3.3 percent to GDP instead of the 25 percent envisaged.

“India is doing well because manufacturing is doing well. If a country has a population of over 230 million and its manufacturing is not doing well, it means it’s going to import everything for 230 million people. Where is the foreign exchange going to come from?” Omotayo queried.

He disclosed that NIPSS is working on a proposal to President Tinubu for a fast-track power solution dedicated to manufacturing, and challenged manufacturers to begin generating their own cheaper power rather than waiting on the grid.

“Manufacturing by itself must manufacture its own power. We have to begin to look beyond waiting for a particular sector to supply us power,” he said.

Omotayo also called for a special raw materials policy to stop the N3.4 trillion import bill, saying he was concerned that the Naira which once exchanged at 80 kobo to a dollar now trades at over N1,000.

Also, the director-general of MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, stressed that implementation, not policy adoption, will determine industrialisation.

“Nations do not industrialise by adopting policies alone. They industrialise by implementing them consistently,” Ajayi-Kadir said.