The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has decried the severe financial constraints besetting the manufacturing sector, which has suffered credit contraction of N1.92 trillion in 2025.
The Director-General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said in a statement titled, “MAN Position on the Sharp Decline in Credit to the Manufacturing Sector”, that the persistent credit squeeze could directly sabotage the successful execution of Nigeria’s Industrial Policy, 2025.
The association lamented that “with commercial borrowing costs remaining actively hostile at an average of 24.4 per cent prime lending rates and 33.8 per cent maximum lending rates, long-term capital investments are unviable”.
“Starving factories of affordable credit blocks technology upgrades and prevents operators from maintaining optimal capacity utilisation or expanding local manufacturing plants.
“It is practically impossible to build a 21st-century industrial economy when forcing factories to fund their capital footprint through 19th-century primitive capital constraints,” the statement said.
“According to the data, commercial bank credit allocation to manufacturing contracted by N1.92 trillion, from N.53 trillion in December 2024, to N6.61 trillion in December 2025.
“This represents a significant year-on-year contraction of 22.5 per cent, which is particularly disturbing, given that manufacturing recorded one of the largest credit contractions among the top sectors, surpassed only by the general services sector at -25 per cent.”
“This steep decline leaves manufacturing lagging far behind the extractive Oil & Gas Industry (N10.59 trillion) and a booming Finance sector (N9.24 trillion), demonstrating a systemic preference for speculative and rent-seeking activities over tangible productivity,” Ajayi-Kadir said.
According to him, the 22.5 per cent credit squeeze of N1.92 trillion from the manufacturing sector stood in unflattering contrast to contemporary global peers in 2025, as India’s bank credit to industry grew by a robust 9.6 per cent year-on-year by late 2025 as part of a deliberate 15 per cent industrial credit expansion.
He also said that Vietnam aggressively projected a 19 per cent to 20 per cent credit growth target for 2025 to intentionally fuel its processing and manufacturing engines.
“Clearly, the Nigerian manufacturing sector cannot thrive without sustainable and growing financial foundations.
“The reduction in credit access could further limit capacity utilisation, stall technological upgrades and hinder job creation.
“For the wider economy, reducing financial support to manufacturing could slow down vital diversification efforts, leaving the nation more vulnerable to external commodity shocks and supply-driven inflation,” Ajayi-Kadir declared,
He stated that the persistent financial starvation of Nigerian manufacturing stemmed not from an absolute scarcity of national capital, but from a fundamental breakdown in policy alignment and distribution architecture.
According to him, deploying developmental funds through flawed commercial banking channels that prioritise short-term profitability and rigid collateral over long-term industrial viability inherently neutralises their economic intent.
MAN said government should conduct an urgent manufacturing sector audit to ascertain the impact of the major reforms under the administration on the sector.
It said, “Until policy promises are structurally insulated from hostile commercial loan criteria and translated into accessible capital,
“Nigeria’s ambition to transform into a competitive manufacturing powerhouse will remain permanently stalled.”
GIK/APA