MAN, Negris partner to end power challenges in industrial firms

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), has partnered Negris, an indigenous engineering company to further address power challenges in the nation’s manufacturing sector, and reduce the capital expenditure in powering their operations from 40 per cent.

The Chairman, Economic Policy Committee, MAN, Reginald Odiah, explained that the partnership will see Negris supply reliable power to manufacturing outfits in Ikeja and environs on agreed terms. He maintained that it would go a long way to cut down undue expenditure and the extra cost in providing alternative means for power generation incurred by manufacturers in the country.

Odiah during a breakfast meeting with stakeholders in the manufacturing industry, said: “Currently, about 40 per cent of our production cost goes into energy provision and this is not healthy for businesses, especially when we have to compete with imported products. Therefore, everything we can, we must do to ensure that we bring our cost down and one of them is the power situation.”

He said the association has entered into some level of engagements with power providers in solar, waste to energy and a couple of other energy sources in order to provide power to companies in the northern part of the country that do not have access to gas

“We are also talking about small hydro plants where we have small rivers and streams and all these are being put together. We are not relying solely on gas as there are some small companies that cannot afford the cost of gas, so this is why we have a company called Manufacturers Power Development Company (MPDC) which is to bring manufacturers together in clusters and arrange for power to be supplied to them through power providers.

“This is a venture we believe if well developed will heavily reduce the cost of production in the country, because as a group cost can be reduced rather running individually,” he added.

He explained that manufacturers, while seeking solutions are avoiding issues that may put them at loggerheads with the government and distribution companies.

In his words, “Whatever measure we are deploying presently, we are taking steps to ensure that we do not have issues with government, distribution companies and not even with the transmission companies. That is why we are asking Negris to close all agreements in terms of using their facilities.

“It is very difficult to do production in Nigeria with the power situation in the country and therefore we need all hands on deck and seek the support of the federal government to make laws and policies that would assist in reducing the cost of power in the country.

“We know currently that some of the laws they made especially in terms of tariff has been fairly difficult for distribution companies to break even and we implore the government to address this situation so that at the end of the day, we will have what we call a cost reflective tariff that will be acceptable to the end users and distribution companies.”

Also, the Managing Director, Negris, Wole Ayoola, said with a centralised power plant and a number of people coming together, manufacturers can be sure of having access to power supply at a reduced cost, adding that addressing the power situation in Nigeria is a collective effort by different stakeholders in the industry.

“We have been in power generation for the past 36 years, and you know it is a massive industry and not one company can solve the power problem. We have particular experience with gas engines, turbines while others are into solar, renewable energy. We are just playing our role in the larger chain to be self sufficient in power generation,” he added.