The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said that at the end of the first half of 2019, an estimated 1,644,392 historical cumulative jobs had over time been created by the sector.
The Association made the disclosure in Executive Summary of the economic review for the first half of 2019 made available to newsmen on Friday in Lagos.
Specifically, in the first half of 2019, the Summary indicated that new manufacturing jobs increased by 2674 and 3111 jobs from 9320 and 8883 jobs created in the first and second halves of 2018 respectively.
In the first half of 2019, Chemical and Pharmaceutical sectoral group accounted for most of the jobs created in the manufacturing sector with 2784 employments.
Domestic/Industrial Plastic & Rubber trailed with 2331 jobs, Motor Vehicle & Miscellaneous assembly with 2121 jobs and Food, Beverage and Tobacco with jobs numbering 1449 in the period under survey.
The report revealed that total job loss declined by 2753 from 6050 recorded in the first half of 2018 but increased by 710 jobs when compared with 2587 jobs lost in the second half of 2018.
The summary also revealed that improvement, albeit marginally was recorded in electricity supply to manufacturers particularly from the distribution companies since the second half of 2018.
“Average hours of electricity supply in the first half of 2019 remained stable at 10 hours per day which was the same recorded in the preceding half.
“However, average number of power outage in the first half of 2019 increased to 5 times daily from the 4 times daily recorded in the second half of 2018,” it reads.
Following the slight improvement in electricity supply to the sector, expenditure on alternative energy in the first half of 2019 declined to N32.68 bn from N43.18 bn and N49.92 bn recorded in the first and second halves of 2018 respectively.
On cost of funds to manufacturers, the association stated that the high cost of borrowing has continued to pose a perennial challenge to the sector.
“In the first half of 2019, interest rate charged to manufacturers stood at 22.5 per cent.
“It stood at 23.01 percent and 21.4 percent in the first and second halves of 2018 respectively” it reads.
