The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to turn the Nigeria First Policy into law to boost the manufacturing sector.

MAN Director-General Segun Ajayi-Kadir, in his keynote address on Thursday at the 2025 BusinessDay Manufacturing Conference held in Lagos, said that gazetting the procurement policy would ensure it is implemented across all arms of government and the private sector.

‘Nigeria First’ is a procurement policy mandating Federal Government ministries, departments, and agencies to prioritise locally made products in their budgetary allocations.

Ajayi-Kadir stated that manufacturing, which is burdened by high interest rates, can benefit from the policy when it is enforceable as law.

He recommended: “Make the Nigeria First Policy a binding law, and punitive measures should be put in place for violators. This is critical to give the policy legal standing, ensuring transparency, public awareness, and enforceability across government institutions and the private sector.”

Ajayi-Kadir warned that the Nigeria First policy risks going the way of past executive orders 003 and 005 that failed to make a tangible impact due to the absence of a formal legal framework.

He added, “Nigeria must seize this moment to transform its manufacturing sector by prioritising the patronage of local products. If we fail to nurture our own, we will forever be at the mercy of others.”

Meanwhile, MAN’s DG bemoaned the challenges manufacturers faced. He stressed that 767 manufacturing companies shut down operations in 2023 alone, while over 18,000 jobs were lost in 2024.

He added that rising costs, policy inconsistencies, infrastructural decay, and currency depreciation have made the manufacturing sector nearly unviable.

Meanwhile, MAN urged the government to resolve the $2.4 bn in unsettled foreign exchange forwards, reverse the 15 per cent increase in port charges by the Nigerian Ports Authority and remove the suspended but previously enforced four per cent Free on Board levy on exports.

Ajayi-Kadir also called for the fast-tracking of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline, which he said would inject 3.6 GW into the power grid and drastically reduce manufacturers’ energy burdens.

Further, MAN urged the Federal Government to adopt its 2024 Manufacturers Summit Report as working documents for a national industrial policy, stressing, “A nation without a clear industrial policy is like a ship without a rudder.”