Manufacturers seek govt intervention in addressing rising production costs

THE Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Apapa branch, has sought government’s intervention in addressing high cost of production arising from poor infrastructure and high cost of finance, policy inconsistency, poor investment climate and weak regulatory institutions.

    Specifically, the manufacturers raised concerns on the need for government to increase their access to long term loans at single digit interest rates, accede its request for zero per cent duty on all manufacturing machinery and equipment to facilitate retooling and replacement of obsolete ones as well as removal of value added tax (VAT) on raw materials used in the production of non-VAT-able products.

    Chairman of the MAN branch, John Alaya, while speaking at the association’s yearly general meeting in Lagos at the weekend, said it has become imperative that government unbundles and unlocks the hidden potential in the manufacturing sector for it to be the driver of the nation’s economy and join the league of industrialised nation.

     Aluya added that the challenge for the country was to reach the threshold of competitiveness by converting known challenges into opportunities and harnessing the potential in the nation’s abundant resources.

    He observed that with over 65 per cent of industries in Lagos state, it has become imperative that the state government looked at workable and acceptable framework for industrial participation in its sphere of activities.      

  “Lagos is home to about 2000 industrial complexes, 10,000 commercial ventures and 22 industrial estates and contributes 30 per cent to the nation’s GDP, home to major national maritime cargo, over 80 per cent of international aviation traffic and over 595 of Nigeria energy consumptions. It is not a disadvantage to be a latecomer in the sphere of industrialisation today. The country can pass several stages of development and move into a high degree of industrialisation,” he added.

     Director-General, Raw Material Research Development Council, Prof. Peter Onwualu, while speaking on the theme, “increasing the utilisation of local raw materials through product research to enhance competitiveness,” said Nigeria was ranked 148 out of 196 countries and also classified in the report as factors driven economy as oppose to efficient innovation.

     He said the manufacturing sector in Nigeria is facing a low level of local innovation, and poor infrastructure. For science and technology to translate and improve quality of life, wealth and employment creation, it must focus on bringing new goods and services to the market place.

  He explained that such competitiveness must relate to the ability and performance of a sub-sector to sell and supply goods and services in a given market, while increasing productivity.

    On the way forward, Olayinka harped on the real sector’s adoption of the triple helix approach to engender and enhance industrial competitiveness, as well as, promote bio-enterprise development that will improve resources and industrial linkages.

By Femi Adekoya and Adeniyi Adunola

Stakeholder boost human capital management

In keeping with its commitment to improve the Nigerian corporate landscape through the development of capacity building programmes for business executives, Poise Nigeria Limited, a personality development and business image consultancy in conjunction with Enterprise development Centre (EDC) of Pan- Atlantic University, recently organised breakfast meetings to discuss a new approach to the protracted problem of poor employability skills in the nation’s work force.

  The events which held at the EDC centre in Lagos and Abuja on 13th and 17th July, 2013 respectively, and saw in attendance CEOs and Human Resource Personnel from over 50 organisations, featured talks on the perennial problem of poor employability skills among Nigerian graduates and how the situation can be managed. The focus was on the challenges of recruiting qualified hands and safeguarding and improving the quality of an organization’s workforce by using an effective recruitment system. A key part of the conversation was a product known as PSENSE, a specially designed tool for human capital management, which takes into account and mitigates the basic challenges of the Nigerian labour force and the employability levels of our graduates. The product is an employability skills testing and certification platform designed by Poise Nigeria in collaboration with Biddle Consulting, United State.

  Speaking at the event, Mrs. Ukinebo Dare, the Head of the Poise’ Graduate Finishing School, explained that it had become a necessity to have standardized assessment systems that allow for an objective and accurate measurement of the work readiness of a job candidate. According to her, today’s workplace requires that employees possess essential soft skills among which are the ability to think analytically and work strategically, articulate ideas effectively both in written  and spoken forms, work under pressure, solve problems creatively, possess good ICT skills and so on.  She pointed out that a candidate’s possession of such skills was not easily ascertainable by screenings based on their class of degree or their performance in theoretical and abstract aptitude tests, but on a checkpoint system built to test for such skills.

  At this point, she introduced the PSENSE Employability Skills Certification as an assessment tool that had been designed  not only to  test the intelligence quotient of the job candidate, but more importantly, to ascertain their work readiness through an evaluation of their employability skills level.

 Dare  stated that the product would reduce the chances of making  hiring mistakes because it would provide employers with a clear picture of a prospective employee’s intelligence quotient and their possession of the essential work place soft skills. She further explained that unlike the typical recruitment aptitude tests which were capable of presenting employers with only a report on the intelligence level of the candidates, the PSENSE Employability Skills Certification was built to test the job candidate’s mental prowess, and their possession of the crucial work place skills: ICT skills, problem solving ability, interpersonal skills, writing ability, knowledge of the English grammar, time management ability, emotional intelligence, team work skills among others.

 Dare, who is also an employability skills trainer and a recruiter, pointed out that the product was customizable, and could be adapted to the suit the recruitment needs of different organisations. She also said that the product could be used to test and recruit for specific job functions, managerial roles, and in-house testing of incumbent employees to determine their training needs. 

  Also speaking at the event, the Director of the Enterprise Development Centre, Peter Bamkole, lauded the product as the possible solution to the perennial problem of poor employability skills. Bamkole noted that the possession of good soft skills had become as imperative as hard skills for the successful performance of a job, and that a tool that promised to ascertain a candidate’s possession of the requisite work skills and take the guesswork out of the hiring process was a welcome development.

 The Group CEO of Poise Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Mavi Isibor also said that the company was presently conducting employability skills seminars in some universities, training undergraduates in employability skills and working with recruiters and trainers to standardize training and certification.
 According to her, the only way to revive the work force and secure the nation’s future was set a standard. She therefore called on organisations present to request for the certification, and that this in return would compel job seekers to seek the necessary training required to acquire the certification.
  The product was well received by those in attendance, and the event ended with a demonstration of the workings of the tool.