The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has downplayed the 65.84 per cent increase in the value of manufactured goods exported in 2024 from 2023, stating it is below expectations.
The PUNCH found that the gross value of manufactured goods exported in 2024 was N2.28tn, an increase from N778.44bn in 2023.
While manufactured goods exports in 2023 were worse than the previous year, export value slumped in the fourth quarter of 2024.
The National Bureau of Statistics’ Foreign Trade in Goods data showed the sector’s export value sustained growth in the first quarter of 2024 with N268.70bn, N480.82bn, and N1.04tn in the second and third quarters, respectively.
However, the export value of manufactured goods dropped by 52.48 per cent in Q4 2024 as the NBS reported a lesser value of 494.22bn.
Secretary of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria Export Promotion Group, Dr Benedict Obhiosa told The PUNCH in a phone interview that the decline in the manufacturing sector’s Q4 2024 export performance stemmed from a hostile operating environment.
“The operating environment has been very hostile for the manufacturing sector over the past two years, especially in terms of infrastructure,” Obhiosa stated. “The high cost of energy, high cost of borrowing, erratic fluctuations in the exchange rate, among others has culminated in the low performance of the manufacturing sector.”
MAN has called attention to the manufacturing sector’s debilitating state. Earlier in its Q4 2024 Manufacturers Chief Executive Officers Confidence Index, MAN’s Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir noted, “Findings show that production and distribution costs surged further by 18.2 per cent in the quarter under review, from the 20.1 per cent increase witnessed in the preceding quarter.”
Meanwhile, MANEG’s Secretary, Obhiosa disagreed that the improvement in export value from 2023 was not enough to celebrate.
Obhiosa argued that while the NBS data revealed a slight increase, it does not transcend to growth in the sector. He explained that the manufacturing companies were still performing “far below their installed capacity.”
He declared that a more concrete path out of the challenge was an increased government commitment to issuing manufacturers export grants.
“To maximise the potential of the manufacturing export sector, the Federal Government needs to be more deliberate and action-minded about fully implementing the Export Expand Grant aimed at boosting the non-oil export sector in Nigeria,” Obhiosa stressed. “Historically, EEG has been found to have spurred non-oil export growth in Nigeria.”
Obhiosa alleged that the Federal Government was complicit as it had not paid the EEG leading to years of payment backlog.
He explained: “If the Federal Government can be consistent with the payment of EEG, you can rest assured of higher foreign exchange earnings and inflow to Nigeria as export proceeds payments. As a result, many informal sector operators will even be attracted to the formal export channel.”
According to the NBS, the value of manufactured goods traded in Q4 2024 stood at N8.96tn, representing 24.50 per cent of total trade.
The main export commodities were unwrought aluminium alloys exported to Japan and China, dredgers exported to Ivory Coast, and cathodes exported to Japan and China.
The NBS added that manufactured goods were mainly exported to Africa at N215.85bn, followed by exports to Asia valued at N165.97bn and Europe at N62.13bn.
