BusinessDay Nigeria BusinessDay 18 Jun 2018 | Page 34

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BUSINESS DAY
C002D5556
REAL SECTOR WATCH
Monday 18 June 2018
Power supply to industrial clusters improves
slightly as manufacturers’ energy spend drops 22%
Stories by ODINAKA ANUDU
P
ower supply to
industrial clus-
t e r s i m p rov e d
slightly year-on-
year in the sec-
ond half of 2017, from eight
to nine hours on the aver-
age, leading to 22 percent
decrease in manufacturers’
energy expenditure.
According to the lat-
est data obtained from the
Manufacturers Association
of Nigeria (MAN), analysed
by BusinessDay, manufac-
turers spent N51.35 billion
in the last six months of
2017 as against N66.03 bil-
lion expended in the second
half of 2016, indicating a
22.23 percent drop.
This is a testament that
improved power supply
across the country will have
a multiplier effect on the
economy, analysts say.
The data show that man-
ufacturers spent N66.96
billion in the first half of
2017, indicating a 23 per-
cent drop when compared
with the amount spent on
the second half.
Power outages occurred
four times each day on the
average in the second half
of 2017, the data say.
“The decline in expendi-
ture on alternative energy
source can be attributed to
the relative improvement in
electricity supply to manu-
facturing companies from
the national grid,” MAN says.
About 30 to 40 percent of
manufacturers’ expenditure
goes to alternative energy
sources such as diesel, fuel,
gas, low-pour fuel oil, USPs,
coal-fired plants and invert-
ers, among others.
Ma n u f a c t u re r s s p e n t
Nigerian manufacturing output
rises by only 2% --UNIDO
T
he United Nations
Industrial Develop-
ment Organisation
(UNIDO)’s World
Manufacturing Production
Statistics for Quarter I, 2018,
says that Nigeria’s manufac-
turing output rose by just two
percent in the first quarter of
this year.
The rep or t says that
there was lower growth in
major African economies,
with manufacturing out-
put rising by 1.1 percent
in Egypt, 2.0 percent in
Nigeria and 1.5 per cent in
South Africa. This shows
that Nigeria is not, after all,
a laggard in manufacturing
on the continent.
Estimates based on lim-
ited data showed some slow-
down in Africa, where manu-
facturing output rose by 1.9
percent in the first quarter of
2018, lower than 2.3 percent
in the last quarter of 2017.
According to estimates,
global manufacturing output
rose by 4.2 percent in the first
quarter of 2018, which was
slightly lower than 4.7 per cent
of the last quarter of 2017.
The manufacturing out-
put of industrialised econo-
mies rose by the lower rate
of 2.9 percent in the first
quarter of 2018, compared
to 3.5 per cent in the last
quarter of 2017. The manu-
facturing output growth of
China, which accounts for a
quarter of global manufac-
turing production, also fell
marginally, to 6.3 percent
in the first quarter of 2018
from 6.8 percent in previous
quarter.
According to UNIDO’s
World Manufacturing Pro-
duction Statistics for Quarter
I, 2018 report, the full impact
of tariff uncertainties on the
dynamics of global manufac-
turing is yet to be seen as the
first quarter figures indicate
only a marginal slowdown.
Observed growth rates are
still high but deceleration is
visible in all country groups,
including the developing
and emerging industrial
economies where manu-
facturing output increased
by 4.8 percent in the first
quarter of 2018 compared to
5.3 percent in the previous
quarter.
The manufacturing of Eu-
ropean ind