The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (MAN), has emphasised the need for the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to intensify efforts at ensuring a seamless transition from old naira to new naira notes.
Its Director-General, MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, who stated this yesterday, said that anything to the contrary would be inimical to manufacturing.
According to him, should the current hardships being experienced in accessing money persisted for the next three weeks, there would be a possible 25 percent drop in monthly sales of Made-in-Nigeria goods.
He noted that as purchases from the retail end, which is mostly transacted in cash, dry up, there would be a sharp drop in wholesale purchases, leading to a glut of unsold inventories in factories.
He added that the situation, which was not good for manufacturing, for Government and the ordinary citizen, would lead to compounded crippling lack of patronage for the domestic manufacturer.
Ajayi-Kadir also said that the development would also deny the government the revenue that would have accrued from consumption taxes and result in the disruption of the daily life and need of the average Nigerian. “With our growth prospects heading further south, we can ill-afford a downturn in our Gross Domestic Product (GDP)”, he stressed.
Ajayi-Kadir cautioned that adequate measures should be put in place to ensure a smooth currency transition, particularly in the unbanked areas of Nigeria.
He charged the CBN and Bureaux de Changes to be most engaging at the highest level at this time
According to him, there is a need for strategic communication and joint operations to ensure widespread and sustained availability and circulation of the redesigned naira notes.
“We must make haste to ensure that the price to be paid for this otherwise laudable policy does not outpace the gains”, he also cautioned.
