The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria has said the inventory of unsold finished and manufactured goods increased to N303.22bn in the second half of last year, compared to N202.16bn in the corresponding period of 2019.
In a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of MAN, Mrs Omotayo Okewunmi, on Thursday, the association said the unsold goods increased by N28.83bn, when compared to the N275.39bn recorded in the first half of the year.
MAN said the inventory of unsold manufactured goods in the sector totalled N577.61bn in 2020 as against N402.42bn in 2019.
“The increase in inventory in the period was attributed to the general low consumption and renewed imports in the economy as global economies generally open after months of lockdown,” it said.
It said that electrical and electronic sector group accounted for over 33 per cent of total inventory of unsold manufactured products in the period.
“The group are having challenges of low patronage, high smuggling and products counterfeiting which rubbed off negatively on inventory,” MAN said.
The association said the energy supply to the manufacturing sector increased to 12 hours on a daily basis in the second half of 2020 as against 10 hours daily in the first half.
“Average daily outage had constantly averaged four times per day. However expenditure on alternative energy in the second half of 2020 increased to N57.75bn in the second half of 2020 as against the N34.70bn recorded in the corresponding half of 2019 thus indicating 66.4 per cent increase over the period,” it said.
