The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to reduce the number of Bureau De Change (BDC) operators in the country.
MAN also wants the banking sector regulator to develop a sustainable framework to guide credit intervention to the manufacturing sector.
The call for credit intervention is in sharp contrast with recent policy announcement by the CBN to the effect that it was discontinuing all direct intervention programmes to focus on its core functions.
MAN President, Otunba Francis Meshioye, in an address at the MAN Reporter of the Year award ceremony, hinged the call for reduction in the number of BDCs on the need to check their excesses and ensure proper structure of their operations.
He also urged the CBN to prioritise FX allocation to the sector and strategically guide remittances into the non-oil sectors like the manufacturing industry.
What he said
“Additionally, it should mobilise commercial banks to intentionally provide long-term single-digit interest loans to the manufacturing sector to fast-track the actualization of a 1 trillion-dollar economy,” he stated.
Meshioye also tasked the federal government to direct savings from the fuel subsidy removal to productive sectors of the economy, encourage sub-national governments to leverage the Electricity Act to improve the power sector and patronize made-in-Nigeria goods on all its purchases and contracts.
