By Nkiruka Nnorom
THE Chief Executive Officer
of Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr. Muda Yusuf, has said that the contraction in the manufacturing sector GDP especially in the food and beverage sub-sector is an indication of the diverse economic headwinds facing businesses in the country.
Speaking in an emailed reaction on the latest GDP numbers tagged: “Comments on quarterly GDP Growth for the Third Quarter of 2022” made available to Vanguard, Yusuf stated that the situation posed grave danger to food security, job creation and inflationary pressure and called for an urgent action by the government to fix the problem.
The GDP Report for the third quarter (Q3’2022) released last week by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that the manufacturing sector contracted by 1.91 per cent.
Similarly, the food and beverage sector recorded the first quarterly contraction since 2020, shrinking by 4.05 per cent.
Yusuf, therefore, called on the government to fix the macroeconomic headwinds of high inflation and currency volatility as well as address the structural impediments to production and other economic activities.
He said: “The sectors that recorded contraction during the period are victims of diverse headwinds in the economy. This development is a reflection of a major setback for the Nigerian manufacturing sector which calls for an emergency response by the government. The plunge in the manufacturing sector performance has profound implications for food inflation, food security and employment. The food processing sector has the biggest impact on jobs because of the strong backward integration content and high multiplier effect in the agriculture value chain.”
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