MAN warns against making Nigeria dumping ground for substandard products

The National Vice President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Giandomenico Massari, has warned against making Nigeria a ‘dumping ground ‘ for substandard products, stating that such is the easiest way to destroy the economy and kill jobs.

Massari lamented that few persons gain in a dumped economy but the majority suffer the loss of jobs, forex crisis, inflation, crime and instability amongst others.

Speaking, yesterday, in Port Harcourt, the Italy-born naturalized Nigerian with 45 years in electrical and electronic engineering professions, said: “Nigeria has been inundated with sub-standard products that do not add value to the economy”.

He said: “We need an economy that produces almost everything that is imported and in high quality. Nigeria already has high quality in some products, it means Nigeria can produce high quality in almost every product.

He charged the governments to rise up and fight dumping to save their economy and prevent a mass crisis that comes from the continued loss of jobs for youths.

According to him, the nation should target being an exporting country and should target how to replicate what is happening in China because Nigeria has all the potential, especially on labour and other resources.

To achieve this, Massari said: “All stakeholders must work for the same goal. It is not good for private interests to sabotage this path and divert the gains. This is where change must be targeted, creating public interest instead of private interest.

“There is a need to sanitise things and boost manufacturing in Nigeria. This is not happening at the moment.”

He affirmed that Nigeria can even become a global hub of manufacturing; a place investors can manufacture anything at a cheap cost to create competitive products for both export and for the local market.

He said: This will bring benefits to the country not only by creating jobs but by creating values and foreign exchange (forex) that would be pouring into the country. By this, you are enriching the economy and the people. There should be advocacy in this and all should rally around MAN as a major backbone for the economy.”

He said it is to push for Nigeria to be a manufacturing hub that he joined MAN in 1997; adding “My reason to participate in the affairs of MAN is to boost the body that caters for manufacturers and to support it to boost manufacturing.

“The objective is to strive to manufacture high-quality products and be also to make sure that all the systems involved in manufacturing are protected and developed.’

On his plans for the association, he said, he would build a database adding that data is everything in the world of business and planning today. “My first task is to build a database of members; what they do, what they can produce, the certifications they have, etc.