Anna Okon

The instability in electricity supply from the national grid has continued to make businesses to look inwards through independent power generation , a new report has said .

According to the survey conducted by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria , expenditure on self -generated energy in the manufacturing sector increased from N 58 .82 bn in 2015 to N 129 .95 in 2016 .

The report of the survey just released showed that the sector spent N 71 .13 bn more on independent power generation in 2016 .

A further analysis of the report indicated that manufacturers spent N 66 .99 bn on independent power generation in the second half of 2016 as against N 29 .48 bn spent in the corresponding period of 2015, showing an increase of N 37 .51 bn .

It also increased by N 4. 03 bn when compared with N62 .96 bn recorded in the preceding half of the year.
The report revealed that the share of energy for the sector stood at 36 per cent, and the supply averaged eight hours .

It stated that the rising expenditure on independent power generation and arbitrary increase in electricity tariffs were responsible for the high cost of production in the sector .

This , it noted , made it difficult for made – in- Nigeria products to compete well with imported goods in terms of pricing .

The association , in the report , noted that the macroeconomic terrain in 2016 , especially in the first half of the year , was highly volatile.

It described the acute shortage of foreign exchange , high lending rate and exclusion of some vital manufacturing raw materials from the official foreign exchange market as major economic problems during the period, adding that the situation was made worse by the declining household consumption due to inflationary effect on real time income .

The preferential forex allocation to manufacturers by the Central Bank of Nigeria , according to the association, was however the turning point in the second half of 2016 .

This , it said , was because the forex allocation was able to support the various investments already made locally for the development of raw materials and production , to a large extent .

“This , in fact, was responsible for the production momentum gained in the economy in the second half of the year ,” the report stated .

Among other recommendations , MAN advised the government to re -visit the power sector reform and fully implement the power sector road map to improve the efficiency of the generation , transmission and distribution companies .

It urged the government to re -classify manufacturing sector into strategic gas users from the current commercial classification .

MAN stressed the need to ensure proper settlement of acquired properties such as land for electricity equipment installation to avoid venting of anger that would lead to destruction of the infrastructure .

Punchng