Mr Usen Umor, the association’s treasurer for Cross River and Akwa Ibom, made this known in an interview with newsmen on Thursday in Calabar.
Umor, who is also the General Manager of Royal Farms, rubber cultivation and processing plant, said the association had always been faced with poor power supply in the country, hence its partnership with some foreign organisations on renewable energy options.
According to Umor, apart from supporting manufacturers to generate renewable energy that would be less expensive, these agencies would also advise factory owners on how to maximise power and introduce them to alternative power supply.
“Power is a major challenge to manufacturers; imagine setting up a factory to run at 100 per cent but due to poor power, you are running at 25 per cent. So, I thank God that the association in partnership with some foreign organisations is trying to remedy the situation.”
“When this is achieved, the installed capacity utilisation of factories in the nation could go up to as much as between 75 per cent and 80 per cent; our energy consumption cost can be reduced by 50 per cent or more. As I speak to you, my factory is in a remote area and not connected to the national grid, so you can imagine how much we spend on a daily basis on diesel, this could have been channeled to other areas,” Umor said.
He made it known that the government should always be ready to support the manufacturers because without them, the nation would have lots challenges to grapple with in terms of employment and addition to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the nation.
“There is always a need for the government to have a buffer for manufactures because they create employment and aid the government to take people out of the streets.”
“It is important that manufacturers are supported either through funding or supply of raw materials so that the plants are not shut down and people sent back to the streets, that will be catastrophic to any economy,” he said
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