MAN Warns Inflation Will Persist Without Reforms

Nigeria’s manufacturing sector has issued a grim warning regarding persistent domestic price pressures. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria stated on Friday that food and core inflation will not ease without fundamental structural reforms. Association Director-General Segun Ajayi-Kadir warned that high energy tariffs, foreign exchange scarcity, and extortionate interest rates continue to cripple production. Factory owners face escalating operational costs while consumer purchasing power plummets. Recent monetary policy interventions from central bankers have failed to halt rising commodity prices. Industry leaders demand urgent fiscal interventions to save domestic manufacturing from total collapse.

High energy costs remain the single largest burden on local production lines. Refineries and power distribution firms continue to push fuel and electricity prices upward across industrial zones. Manufacturers must rely on expensive diesel generators to maintain factory operations amidst frequent national grid failures. Logistics costs have similarly surged following consecutive petrol price adjustments at the pump. These compounding overheads force factory owners to raise wholesale prices continuously. Domestic producers simply pass these structural costs straight down to already impoverished consumers.

The group highlighted severe foreign exchange constraints as a primary engine of persistent inflation. Nigerian manufacturers depend heavily on imported raw materials, industrial machinery, and spare parts. Rapid currency depreciation inflates the landing cost of these essential industrial inputs. Commercial banks struggle to supply sufficient foreign currency, forcing firms toward expensive parallel markets. The central bank’s high interest rate policy further starves local producers of affordable expansion capital. Borrowing at interest rates above thirty per cent makes domestic products completely uncompetitive against cheap foreign imports.

Failure to fix these structural bottlenecks risks widespread factory closures and mass layoffs. Industrial capacity utilization across major manufacturing hubs continues to drop month after month. Unsold inventory builds up in warehouses as real wages fail to keep pace with basic food costs. Small and medium enterprises face the highest risk of bankruptcy under current credit conditions. The manufacturing body urges federal authorities to provide targeted tax relief, subsidized credit, and priority foreign exchange access for productive sectors.

Economic stability requires more than monetary tightening from central bank headquarters in Abuja. The government must address energy insecurity, repair transport infrastructure, and secure agricultural belts against banditry. Price stability will remain an impossible dream while local production suffers from chronic structural neglect. Policymakers must align fiscal measures with real manufacturing needs to stimulate actual economic growth. Without rapid structural reform, Nigerian consumers will continue to bear the unbearable cost of economic stagnation.