75 manufacturing firms close down in South-East over bad roads, poor infrastructure in 5yrs

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has said that not less than 75 manufacturing firms from about 150 in its membership list in the South East had shutdown in the last five years over bad access roads, poor infrastructure and others. Chief Azubuike Okafor, chairman of MAN in-charge of Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu, said this at the first Anambra Government-Development Partners summit in Awka on Tuesday.

Okafor attributed the shutdowns to poor infrastructure, including bad access roads, was negatively affecting cost of production by its members in the zone. He said such development made it unsuitable for the firms to operate in the region. “About fiver years ago, we had about 150 manufacturing firms in our membership list in the zone and now about 75 of them have closed dow; that represents about 50 per cent of members. “We do not have the enabling infrastructure, power and roads to operate; the cost of moving materials from Lagos to Anambra is almost the same as the cost of importing the material from China into Nigeria.