The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must implement policies that stimulate foreign investment and promote an enabling environment for domestic manufacturing to flourish, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said.
MAN also said it is high time the Federal Government focused more on promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) and export of high-value added manufactured goods that are capable of boosting the country’s foreign exchange (forex) reserves and sustaining the appreciation of the naira.
Doing these, the association pointed out, will bring the prevailing high inflation in Nigeria under control rather than the current CBN’s monetary tightening policies that are more effective for combating demand-pull inflation.
Director-General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir insisted that the economy is more plagued by cost-push inflation that is stoked by supply-side bottlenecks hence “The high inflation is yet to respond to the ongoing contractionary monetary policies by the CBN.”
Speaking in Lagos, during the presentation of the MAN CEO’s Confidence Index (MCCI) Report for Q1 2024, the MAN DG lamented that rather than combat inflation, which is cost-push, the apex bank’s contractionary monetary policies have rather choked the real sector.
He, therefore, said “Ensuring price stability without undermining real sector growth requires the concerted efforts from both the monetary and fiscal authorities.”
The MCCI is an index constructed by MAN to measure changes in quarterly pulse of CEOs of manufacturing concerns in relation to changes in government policies and movement in macroeconomic indicators.
Source: Nation
