Yemisi Izuora
The Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the Centre For The Promotion Of Private Enterprise, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf has advised the federal government to take urgent steps to address the country’s energy crises saying that energy cost cost is one of the biggest challenges facing investors in the Nigerian economy.
Yusuf, former Director General of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, said, “If we must reduce the cost of production for manufacturers, then reducing energy cost becomes very critical.”
According to him, Manufacturers have complained about high cost of gas and also worried about availability, adding, “There is also the added challenge of having to pay for the gas in dollars. This is inequitable and needs to be urgently corrected. It is unfair to demand for payment for gas by industrialists in foreign currency when manufacturers are selling their products in naira.”
He also noted that it is against the extant regulation and policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN on payment for domestic transactions and therefore requested an urgent intervention by the government to correct this anomaly.
He said, “There is also the acute shortage and phenomenal spike in the cost of cooking gas. It is a paradox that as a leading exporter of gas in Africa, there is no framework to ensure adequate supply of gas to domestic market. Again, we request that this irregularity be corrected.”