LAGOS- The South-West Branch of the Nigerian Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI) has urged the federal and State Governments to create more industrial clusters for small-scale manufacturers.
The Chairman of the association, Chief Duro Kuteyi, made the appeal in an interview with newsmen in Lagos.
Kuteyi, who is also the Chief Executive Officer of Spectra Foods, Lagos, said that technology incubation centres across the country were struggling to survive, due to poor power supply and infrastructure.
He said that industrial clusters were necessary to stem the lack of funds, out-dated machinery and inadequate power supply that were the major challenges facing local manufacturers.
“The nation is in dire need of an industrial revolution, diversification of the economy and small-scale manufacturers should be the focal point.
“We have been clamouring for the creation of industrial clusters, which would cushion the effects of this lack of funds and other challenges that local manufacturers face.
“Let the government look at the areas where we have comparative advantage in production and create an incubation centre that would accommodate not less than 50 to 100 industrialists.
“In the cluster centre, there would be need for lesser number of machines, space and electricity supply but it will bring high productivity, therefore, we need government’s support,” he said.
Kuteyi noted that machine fabricators had been reluctant to grant credit facilities to manufacturers, hence the need to pull resources together and acquire machines.
