The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), last week, reiterated its call that Morocco must never be admitted into the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) .
The association in a statement warned the Federal Government as well as leaders in the ECOWAS sub-region that admitting the Magreb nation into the community will have disastrous effect on the nation’s manufacturers and the region.
The President of MAN, Frank Jacobs, said admission of Morocco into ECOWAS will be equivalent to signing the EPA through the back door. “We therefore urge the Federal Government to vehemently oppose the move as it would spell doom to the productive sector of the economy.”
He further explained that: “We are aware that Morocco and European Union (EU) have trade agreement, which means if they become part of ECOWAS, products that come into Morocco from EU will end up in Nigeria; after all, Nigeria is the biggest market among all these countries in the ECOWAS, so we are vehemently opposed to Morocco being admitted into ECOWAS.
“It will really affect us badly, so we are telling our government not to allow them become part of ECOWAS because it will badly affect the productive sector of our economy. Come to think of it, why should they be part of ECOWAS? They are too far, ECOWAS is Economic States of West Africa, Morocco is not part of West Africa and they shouldn’t be part of ECOWAS.”
While lauding the Federal Government for the introduction of some policies, which have stimulated the economy, MAN appealed that there are still three key challenges that have to be adequately addressed for the nation’s productive sector to boom. The challenges, according to him, are inadequate and unstable power, non-availability of foreign exchange for importation of essential manufacturing inputs and unrestrained high interest rates. He said with the prevailing double-digit interest rates, the Nigerian economy will continue to suffer decline. “Therefore we recommend, as the association has done in the past and always, a single-digit interest rate.”