Former chief executive officer of the National Bureau of Statistics and chief economist and head of research at KPMG Nigeria, Yemi Kale, has stated that to boost local manufacturing and be globally competitive, it is very important that stakeholders pay attention to research, development and technology in the overall manufacturing process as well as more efficient branding, marketing and sales approaches.
According to him, Nigeria needs to rethink its global competitive strategy not to be left behind as other countries reposition for higher value manufacturing.
He acknowledged this recently, noting that operators need to compete globally and understand that world is constantly evolving.
“Countries are constantly creating new things or looking for newer ways to do things more efficiently & remain competitive. Constantly in a “mad race” to increase value and utility,” he tweeted.
“One challenge we have is that often, we are still struggling to do things the way it was successfully done by other countries in the past. Why do we try to implement what they did then, many have moved past to something better, keeping us perpetually playing catch up,” he added.
The KPMG partner explained that this might arguably be why for the most part, most of our past and present development plans and strategies are almost identical, saying mostly the same things. “Many of which are probably even outdated and might have limited success, allowing us to compete globally today.”
Using the Manufacturers CEO’s Confidence Index (MCCI) of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) as a benchmark for measuring changes in the pulse of operators and trends in the manufacturing sector quarterly, local producers in the country noted that continuous erosion in Naira value and difficulty in accessing foreign exchange, high cost of energy, persisting insecurity and the consequences of lingering Russian-Ukrainian war, are principally responsible for the difficult operating environment and its declining implication on manufacturing activities in the country.
The local producers however urged the government to have a shift towards a better exchange rate management; and moderate the rising energy cost via better management of refined petroleum products imported into the country, noting that these, among other measures, would help to reduce the current high inflation, which is fast eating-up the working capitals of businesses including manufacturing in the economy.
