The upsurge in prices of items have put Lagosians in groans and wails. Keeping with its solution-proffering mantra of making things better, Environmental Lagos Platform visited the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, in a bid to see what the organization can do in ameliorating the prevalent price regime of goods.

MAN has 16 branches across the nation, based on the concentration of industries/location of industrial parks in Nigeria.

The meeting took place at the Ikeja branch; and ELP was warmly welcomed by the General Manager/Executive Secretary; Mr. Femi Gbadegun and his team.

It was an enlightening meeting, as the discussion was broad-based.

MAN listened to our appeal for prices to come down, and pointed out that despite the challenges manufacturers are facing, many of them have price pegs in place; that have not increased in 2 years.

They also mentioned the low marginal profit (often not more than 1%) made by the manufacturers, and the possibility of drastic increase in prices deriving further along the chain of wholesalers and retailers.

Nevertheless, the association said they would look into our request and bring it up with manufacturers on how they can further ease the burden on the people.

ELP also brought up the issue of faded number plates that raised a furore in 2023, when LASG embarked on fines for products that it issued, amidst complaints on the defective nature of the product.

We spoke on standards and how the plates issued by the federal government do not suffer such fate quickly and easily

MAN; sitting on the board of SON (Standards Organization of Nigeria); assured us that actions would be taken if discovered that the number plates were being produced by one of its members.

We referred to reports of more than 700 factories closing down in 2023 and pressed further on challenges facing the association.

The main ones are

1. Cost of imported production inputs (this has port operations as a major contributor)

2. Replication of duties of government agencies and its attendant financial implications

3. Touts. Trucks conveying raw materials or finished products are often besieged by touts extorting huge sums of money

The actions of these challenges often result in astronomical overhead costs that can force increase in price or extinction of producers

The meeting came to an end with an agreement of further collaboration between ELP and MAN, and we were presented with the latest copy of the association’s annual reports.