AMEN loses 40% membership in H1

—–Worries over high cost of doing business

COMFORT EKELEME

The Association of Micro Entrepreneurs of Nigeria (AMEN) has raised alarm over the rate at which businesses are shutting down in the country, saying it lost 40 per cent of its membership in the first half of the year due to the harsh business environment.

This is even as AMEN maintained that most of its members are currently contemplating traveling to other African countries.

It is in the record that top on the list of challenges confronting manufacturers in Nigeria is the high operating cost environment occasioned largely by inadequate electricity supply and the high cost of alternative sources, excessive regulation and taxation, and inadequate supply of foreign exchange for importation of raw materials, spare parts, and machinery that are locally available.

Industry watchers however maintain that all these have culminated in the lackluster performance of the sector.

National President of AMEN, Comrade Prince Saviour Iche told Daily champion that a steady power supply is among the things that will make businesses in Nigeria thrive.

He said, “If performance was 100 per cent before the beginning of 2022, they are performing at the rate of 40 per cent now, and I am among that 40 per cent. The diesel we were buying for N180 before, it is now N800. If there is a steady power supply, the money we are using for diesel, I will put into my business.

“The plastic I was buying for N680, 000 per load, now it is N1.3 million and I used to consume three loads in a week. How many people can survive it,” he said.

Speaking on businesses that have shut down between January and now, Iche said, “We can’t quantify it, most of our members are contemplating traveling outside the country and that will mean laying off the workers.

According to him, the Nigerian economy in the first half of the year performed badly, adding that the number of children that dropped out of school cannot be quantified.

“The economy of Nigeria in the first quarter is bad, when the economy is good, you will know because citizens will live a better life.

“What is challenging the Nigerian economy is we are consuming and not producing. When producing, there would be jobs, and there would be foreign exchange. The economy cannot grow without exporting to other countries that is one of the things that will make the economy grow. Again in a country where the rate of unemployment is rising, there is no way the economy will grow.

“We cannot continue doing the same thing in this country and expert a different result. People who are not supposed to be in some positions are among the reasons why the economy is suffering.