21/08/09 Nigerian Tribune Newspaper

Manufacturers operating in the Nigeria business environment have disclosed that more than N1.8 billion is being spent weekly….

The manufacturers, who operate under different trade associations like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI), said that the major problem facing the manufacturing sector was the lack of power….

They described as intolerable, a situation where the price of diesel had risen from between N85 and N90, to between N98 and N108 per litre, an increase of more than 10 per cent, at a time that the Nigerian economy was still … to cope with the effects of the global economic meltdown.

However, in Abuja , the producers disclosed that that the pump price of diesel was … between N100 and N105 per litre, adding that for some days, it would not be available.Mr. Kolawole Ade-bayo, who has an agro allied firm in Kuje,  Abuja, told the Nigerian Tribune that the situation had deteriorated to the point that his 30-staff workfoce had to be trimmed down to 10 because of the high cost of production, occasioned by lack of electricity.

A member of MAN and chief executive of a paint company, Chief Joseph Akpan, disclosed that many of the association members had closed shop, while some had relocated to other countries with better operating environment, to continue their businesses.He disclosed that the volume of diesel consumed daily in Nigeria was currently put at between 12 million and 13 million litres.