The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has called on the Federal Government to approve the N1tn stabilisation fund for the manufacturing sector, saying the initiative would help cushion the impact of high interest rates and rising production costs on local industries.
The Director-General of MAN, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, appealed in Lagos at a recent media briefing while confirming the full disbursement of the N75bn earlier allocated to manufacturers under the Federal Government’s Presidential Palliative Programme.
The MAN DG stressed in its Manufacturers CEOs Confidence Index for the third quarter of 2025 that the government needs to “approve the N1tn stabilisation fund for manufacturers and direct the CBN to increase the capital base of the Bank of Industry to meet the credit demand of industries.”
Ajayi-Kadir said, “We fully utilised the opportunities granted by the memorandum of understanding with the government. I can confirm to you that the N75bn has been fully disbursed, and our members were involved in the process. Even when we had cases where the beneficiaries’ status was unclear, we investigated with the Bank of Industry to ensure they were authentic contractors.”
He explained that the successful management of the N75bn loan demonstrated manufacturers’ capacity to responsibly handle government interventions, adding that the performance justified the call for the immediate release of the N1tn stabilisation fund promised to the private sector.
He said, “This has created an avenue for us to call for the release of the N1tn under the stabilisation plan. We have demonstrated our capacity to work effectively with the Bank of Industry, and if the government releases this fund, its impact will be positive and immediate.”
The MAN boss lamented that despite recent monetary policy adjustments, lending rates remain prohibitive for manufacturers. He noted, “The average entry rate is still above 30 per cent. It is safer not to borrow from commercial banks, and many of our members are cutting back on loans because of the interest burden.”
Ajayi-Kadir said the association was exploring alternative financing options such as the capital market but stressed that high borrowing costs continued to undermine competitiveness both locally and internationally.
In addition to its appeal to the government to approve the N1tn stabilisation fund and direct the Central Bank of Nigeria to increase the capital base of the Bank of Industry to meet manufacturers’ credit demand, MAN also called for the launch of a Manufacturing Refinancing and Rediscounting Facility that would allow banks to refinance approved manufacturing loans at single-digit rates for up to seven years.
The association further recommended the creation of a publicly accessible dashboard to track lending flows, interest rate spreads, loan approvals, and sectoral disbursements in real time.
Ajayi-Kadir added that the association’s recommendations were aimed at reducing borrowing costs, boosting output and sustaining jobs in the manufacturing sector.
In November 2024, The PUNCH reported that the Federal Government began disbursing the N75bn loan to manufacturers through the Bank of Industry at a nine per cent annual interest rate, over a year after the initiative was announced. The loan was designed to help large companies manage production costs and support economic growth under the Presidential Palliative Programme.
