The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has requested the government to review its diesel importation channel, to prevent industries from shutting down due to the soaring price of the commodity.
The MAN said Industrial hubs are becoming warehouses and event centers, as several cannot cope with the economic challenges of rising diesel cost, poor electricity supply and shortage of foreign exchange.
The manufacturers explained through in statement from its Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadiri, that the rising cost of doing business could be curbed by allowing importation of diesel and aviation from Chad and Republic of Niger.
With diesel price rising by 200 percent to above N800 per litre, coupled with multiple taxation, the manufacturers’ association said on Monday that the companies might be forced to shut down if the government does not intervene.
“Four obvious questions that readily come to mind that are seriously begging for answers are- What can we do as a nation to strengthen our economic absorbers from external shocks?
“Should manufacturing companies that are already battered with multiple taxes, poor access to foreign exchange and now over 200 per cent increase in the price of diesel be advised to shut down operations?
“Should we fold our arms and allow the economy to slip into the valley of recession again? Is the nation well equipped to manage the resulting explosive inflation and unemployment rates?
“More worrisome is the deafening silence from the public sector as regards the plight of manufacturers.” Ajayi-Kadiri said through the statement.
Meanwhile, some filling stations in Lagos now sell a litre of premium motor spirit (PMS) aka petrol for N220, even though they displayed the regulated N165 a litre on their pumps.
Recently, the price of the product increased on the insistence of oil marketers that transportation costs for the commodity had skyrocketed due to a spike in diesel price.
“For you to load a litre of petrol, you will pay N162. You will have to add the cost of transportation, which is between N6 and N8, depending on the distance within Lagos. If it is outside Lagos, it is much more than that,” the Chairman of Lagos Satellite Depot of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Akin Akinrinade, had said.
“Also, some others have shut down services.”
Although some stations sold petrol at N165 a litre in Abuja, others sold the product at N235 a litre.
In Lugbe, AMAC as well as Pykassa filing stations sold petrol at between N230 and N235 per litre.