Diesel takes 80% of manufacturers’ profits, MAN laments

Manufacturers have bemoaned the high cost of diesel, which is used in generating power for their operations.

According to them, the diesel gulps about 80 percent of their profits.

Addressing the plight of manufacturers against the backdrop of high prices of their products, the Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir stated that manufacturers should not be blamed for inflating prices of products, because their cost of production is also very high.

The manufacturers are however a little relieved after the recent decrease of the price of diesel by 29.4 percent by Dangote Refinery.

Dangote refinery now provides the product at a substantially reduced price of N1,200 per litre.

This is a 29.4 percent reduction from the former price of about N1,700 per litre.

Speaking about the high cost of energy, Ajayi-Kadir said: “We have at different fora informed government and relevant agencies of what to do to bring down these inimical worsening high operating costs in the country. Nigerians should not blame local manufacturers for increasing the cost of goods, because they are being confronted with debilitating conditions.

“Do you know that diesel is taking 80 per cent profit of surviving manufacturing firms in Nigeria currently at the rate of about N1,700?

“Which manufacturer can cope with that astronomical price for energy to produce and you won’t expect him to increase his products in the country?

“Also, look at the new Customs exchange rate, new interest rate, scarcity of foreign exchange (FX), NAFDAC ban and others. How do you want to cope in production and make profit?”

BEB