Nigeria Loses Over N10trn Annually To Power Failure, MAN Says
…Looks To Electricity Act 2023 As Game-changer
Nigeria records an annual economic loss of about N10.1 trillion or 2 percent share of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) due to inadequate electricity supply, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria said in a report on Thursday.
The Director General of MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said that inadequate power supply was a hindrance to the profitability of manufacturers and that the total amount spent by manufacturers on alternative energy surged from N77.21 billion in 2021 to N144.47 billion in 2022.
In the report signed by Chisom Oguezuonu, Executive Officer, Corporate Service Division, the MAN boss was quoted as saying that the signing of the Electricity Act 2023, if well implemented, can be a major game-changer for the manufacturing sector with favourable implications.
In the report titled “Position of MAN in the Electricity Act 2023”, Ajayi-Kadir noted that over the past decades, the Nigerian power sector had encountered various turbulence in its electricity value chain.
He attributed this to poor policy enforcement, over-regulation, instability of gas supply, and bottlenecks in its transmission network.
He said that these problems culminated in erratic electricity supply, frequent power outages, and persistent collapses of the national grid, thereby stunting the growth of the economy.
He said that Nigeria’s 86 million is the largest number of people in the world without access to electricity, citing the 2021 report by the International Energy Agency.
“The unfavourable situation has positioned the country among the worst countries to do business with a rank of 171 out of 190,” the MAN report noted.
The report noted that the country’s epileptic power supply is one of the prominent reasons for the relocation of some members of the Association.
According to MAN, Nigeria’s electricity market is one of the biggest in the world because of its massive population and growing demand for energy by households and businesses.
“Therefore, the amount of Internally Generated Revenue that each state stands to accrue from the decentralization of the power sector is delightful. If properly utilized, such huge revenue can bridge the infrastructure deficits in many states without imposing further tax burdens on manufacturers,” MAN stated.
The group expressed hope that such development will encourage the inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) in manufacturing, boost the performance of the sector and increase the sectoral contribution to the economy.
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