Pentouch 
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Necit Nigeria Limited, manufacturer of a locally produced lubricant, Dr.Emmanuel Iheagwazi, has said that Commercial Banks and government agencies are killing manufacturing sector in Nigeria.
Speaking at a briefing tagged ’Challenges Manufacturing Sector faces with Nigerian Commercial Banks: The Necit Nigerian Limited Story’ yesterday, Iheagwazi said most Commercial Banks are making life difficult for manufacturers in the area of sourcing for foreign exchange to purchase materials needed for the production of their products.
He declared that his lubricant is made from 40% local materials and 60% foreign but it is easy for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for manufacturer to source for foreign exchange.
Worse still, he said that after paying at an agreed rate for FX some banks will still come back to demand for money that might arise from any additional rise in FX after the money might have been used by the manufacturer ‘things were better before the devaluation of the naira, right now we are leaving from hand to mouth and this is killing the business.’
The Necit CEO added that the banks also charged arbitrary amount on loans sourced from them and they withold money paid into their account by customers ‘this has been responsible for why most manufacturing companies are leaving Nigeria’.
Dr.Iheaagwuazi said that apart from the banks, the government regulatory agencies are also making life difficult for manufacturers by charging excessively on imported raw materials ‘before the customs was charging 2.5 million per container of imported goods but right now it has risen to about 16.million naira.’
Also the General manager of the company Mr. Onu Obasi added that if such a thing persist the company might be forced to close down and over 2000 workers may be thrown into the labour market ‘and you know what that means, more youths will be unemployed and an idle hand is the devil’s workshop‘.
The financial controller of the company Mr.Seyi Okunuga said that this reason why commercial banks declare excess profit is because they feed fat on manufacturers money, make purchase of foreign exchange difficult and charge arbitrarily on loan procured.
While calling on the the President of Nigeria and the governor of Central Bank of Nigeria to help look into the sharp practices of the Banks, the Necit CEO said if the excesses of commercial banks are not curbed by the CBN and tarrifs on imported raw materials not reduced, most manufacturer may either shut or leave the country.
