Lafarge, SON lament lull in manufacturing

Nigerian products get quality pass mark

The managements of Lafarge Africa, cement manufacturing plants at Ewekoro and Sagamu, Ogun State, have cried out against the inadequate supply of gas to power their plants.

The Production Managers, Segun Shoyoye and Hannes Diedericks respectively, who jointly spoke to journalists last week, disclosed that due to the worrisome situation, the two plants had shut down production for the past six weeks.

According to them, the bad situation, which began six months ago forced the plants to produce far below capacity till “we were forced to shut down the Sagamu plant for six weeks.”

They spoke when officials from the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), led by the Acting Director-General (DG), Mr. Paul Angya, paid an inspection visit to the two plants.

The duo lamented that acute shortage of gas and foreign exchange had seriously affected the operations of manufacturers in the country and urged the Federal Government to take urgent steps to address the situation before many industries completely closed down.

Shoyoye said: “The twin problems of non-availability of gas and foreign exchange are impeding full capacity production in the manufacturing industry. We can say we have some challenges, but the major issue is lack of gas supply because of the blowing up of oil and gas pipelines by militants in the Niger Delta region. We are now using a mixture of gas and black oil for our operations, which is highly costly, and also down rates our production from 100 per cent to 75 percent in the Ewekoro plant. This has been on since February.

“During the month of May, we had to stop production in the Sagamu plant for six weeks. Before then, we had been producing 3,000 tonnes per day, but now, we are doing about 1,000 tonnes per day because of the fuel issue. But, I want to say that we will soon get over it because of our investment in alternative source of energy in our plants,” Shoyoye added

The SON’s DG, Angya, corroborated Shoyoye’s assertion, stating that the many challenges faced by investors are the major factors responsible for high cost of production.

Angya said that he was glad that despite the high cost of production, manufacturers in Nigeria still maintain good and international standards in their operations and production, adding that goods processed and produced in the country could still compete favourably with their peers abroad.

In response to Shoyoye’s complaint of dearth of gas for their plants, Anya said “Clearly, that is a major national challenge, the issue of gas supply and activities of the militants in the Niger Delta with the supply of gas nation-wide has of course hampered the capacity of industries to produce.

“Also, with the downturn of economy, reduction in the inflow of forex because of oil prices, Nigeria is also facing the challenge of inadequate foreign exchange to industries. These are problems government is tackling frontally; government is over driven to reverse these negative trends.”

“Last week, we were in Lagos with captains of industries and the entire industry stakeholders looking at the challenges, and ways of ameliorating the situation. Government is engaging the militants, trying to find solutions and I think within the shortest possible time, the challenges will be a thing of the past.”

Speaking on quality assurance and control in the manufacturing industry in the country, the Acting Director-General said: “I can tell you that the local manufacturers are over 70 per cent compliant to standard requirements. Although, we have issues with competition, perhaps they are not able to compete in terms of price because of cost of production, but in terms of quality products, I score local manufacturers over 70 per cent.”