The Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) has tasked the government to boost the manufacturing sector to compete favourably in Africa, especially with the take-off of the African Continent Free Trade Agreement (AFCFTA).

The President of MAN, Mansur Ahmed, represented by Samuel Kolawole, the Vice President, MAN South-West Zone, advised on Thursday at a sod-turning ceremony in Ibadan.

He said, “We hope that the government would continue to boost manufacturing in Nigeria to help us to improve, especially with AFCFTA that had just taken off.

“We are hoping that the government would help to boost manufacturing in Nigeria so that we can compete favourably all across Africa.

“There is so much to be done to encourage manufacturing in Nigeria by providing an enabling environment as Nigerians are very industrious.”

Mr. Ahmed added that with a proper enabling environment provided by the government, Nigerians would realise their potential in the manufacturing sector.

He explained further, “That would help in a lot of ways to improve the employment rate, to improve foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria and to improve the economy generally.

“This is because there is no way the economy can improve if the manufacturing sector does not improve; that is the real sector that can promote sustainable development in Nigeria.”

According to the MAN president, Nigeria coming out of recession is a good development for the country and the economy.

“It shows that there has been an improvement in the economy over the last quarter; it means that we expect that things would be a little bit better.

“We are not fully out of it yet, there are still a lot of challenges in the economy, but we believe that getting out of recession in a very short time is a good indication of better things to come,” Mr. Ahmed said.

(NAN)