By Fidelia Okafor
The Basic Metals, Iron and Steel Manufacturers Sectoral Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has advocated for a Special Task Force to be set up by the Federal Government to recover lost revenue from the untoward activities of some Free Trade Zones (FTZs) operators in Nigeria over the years.
Chairman of the Group, Prince Lekan Adewoye who made the call in a chat with Journalists in Abuja lamented the weak regulatory oversight in FTZs especially with regards to necessary value addition to raw materials imported to the Zones, export into the Customs territory and trading with related entities.
According to him, the Government is losing a lot in revenue, occasioned by flagrant under invoicing of finished and semi-finished products imported as purported raw materials into the Zones with all the incentives provided by Government, which eventually find ways into the Customs territory without any value addition.
Prince Adewoye stated that these untoward activities undermine genuine local manufacturers operating in the Customs territory leading to shut downs and massive loss of jobs by Nigerians. He gave example of a member company of the Sectoral group in Ogun State scrapping nearly 80% of the installed capacity over unfair competition with operators in the Igbesa FTZ.
“If this situation persists, many more steel manufacturers will collapse, and we risk losing not just investments but also jobs and industrial capacity built over decades. The government must urgently intervene to restore sanity and fairness to the FTZs system before local industries are driven into extinction”, he said.
The MAN Sectoral Group Chairman asserted that the Basic Metals and Iron & Steel sector is the backbone of any nation’s industrial development, stressing that the sector has meaningfully supported the Tinubu administration’s economic diversification and industrialization goals through import substitution and value addition, employment generation and MSME development, industrial integration as well as local production, in spite of daunting challenges.
Commenting on the issue, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Economic Zones Association, Toyin Elegbede assured that the association would not support any form of sabotage by its member organisations, stressing that NEZA’s focus is towards the realization of the objectives for which the FTZs were created.
According to him, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is represented at the FTZs to inspect, certify and issue certificates of conformity for all goods being sold to the Customs territory.
On enquiry from SON, Engr. Enebi Onucheyo, the Director, Product Certification confirmed that the agency has since 2024 developed a scheme “Special Economic Zones Conformity Assessment Programme (SEZCAP), for the certification of goods into and out of the free trade zones to the Customs territory and has recently commenced its deployment.
The scheme he said, is an initiative to enhance the production, importation, sales, and distribution of quality and safe manufactured products in the special economic zones into Nigeria and those to be exported to others parts of the world.
Engr. Onucheyo stated that the SEZCAP is being implemented through SON State Offices having jurisdiction over the FTZs across the country.
