The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to scrap the recently adopted Price Verification System.
The association’s Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, voiced concern that the CBN project is one of several government policies affecting manufacturers’ businesses across the country.
The CBN launched the Price Verification System Portal on August 31 as a step to improve transparency and standardisation in Nigerian trade operations.
According to the CBN, the portal was created to provide importers with access to forex as well as to enable government agencies to monitor and track the prices of goods in real-time. As a result, all Form M applications must now contain a valid pricing verification report generated from the portal.
Read Also:
Mr Segun, however, pointed out that this new practice would only complicate the lives of several manufacturers in the country, who were already grappling with a weak economy and a multitude of challenging policies.
“We look forward to the reversal of so many unnecessary restrictions that were placed by the CBN,” Mr Ajayi-Kadir told Punch Newspapers.
He further explained that the portal is adversely affecting the businesses of MAN members by making it impossible for them to import raw materials, machinery and parts owing to the portal’s price threshold.
“Everything that the government should do now is to revamp the economy and not to place unnecessary hurdles to the flow of business,” he said.
Ajayi-Kadir proposed that the government should focus on ensuring availability of forex. “All efforts should be geared towards that direction and not placing unnecessary restrictions that will only hurt genuine and struggling manufacturers in the country,” he added.
