The National Sugar Development Council has said that Nigeria’s manufacturers pay between two and 10 times more than their counterparts in countries such as Vietnam and China for electricity, credit and logistics, putting the country’s factories at a major competitive disadvantage.
The Executive Secretary of the NSDC, Kamar Bakrin, disclosed this while presenting a paper at the technical session of the 17th National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment in Enugu.
Bakrin said the high cost of production, rather than weak demand, was the biggest challenge confronting Nigerian manufacturers.
According to him, industrial electricity costs about eight US cents per kilowatt-hour in Vietnam and around 10 cents in China, compared with about 15 cents on Nigeria’s national grid, rising to nearly 30 cents when manufacturers rely on diesel generators.
He added that Nigerian manufacturers spent an estimated ₦1.34tn generating their own electricity last year.
He cited Nigeria’s urea industry as evidence that competitive pricing of industrial inputs could transform the country’s manufacturing fortunes.