David Oladimeji
The Basic Metals, Iron and Steel Manufacturers Sectoral Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has raised the alarm over what it described as massive revenue losses by the Federal Government due to alleged sharp practices by some operators within the nation’s Free Trade Zones (FTZs).
The group, in a call for urgent government intervention, demanded the creation of a Special Task Force to investigate, recover lost revenue and restore regulatory sanity in the operations of the FTZs across the country.
Chairman of the Group, Prince Lekan Adewoye, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, lamented what he termed weak regulatory oversight within the zones, particularly in the areas of value addition, export controls and trading with related entities.
According to him, the government is losing huge revenue due to rampant under-invoicing of finished and semi-finished goods imported into the zones and falsely declared as raw materials to enjoy incentives, only for such goods to find their way into Nigeria’s Customs territory without any meaningful value addition.
Adewoye warned that these practices are crippling genuine local manufacturers who operate under stricter regulatory and tax regimes, leading to unfair competition, factory shutdowns and widespread job losses.
He cited the case of a member company in Ogun State that was reportedly forced to scrap nearly 80 per cent of its installed production capacity as a result of unfair competition from operators within the Igbesa Free Trade Zone.
“If this situation persists, many more steel manufacturers will collapse. We risk losing investments, jobs and the industrial capacity painstakingly built over decades. Government must act urgently to save the sector from extinction,” he warned.
The MAN Sectoral Group Chairman stressed that the Basic Metals and Iron & Steel sector remains the backbone of any nation’s industrial growth, noting that despite daunting challenges, the sector has supported the Tinubu administration’s economic diversification and industrialisation drive through import substitution, value addition, employment generation and MSME development.
Reacting to the allegations, the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Economic Zones Association (NEZA), Mr Toyin Elegbede, assured that the association would not tolerate any form of sabotage by its members, stressing that FTZs were established strictly to promote exports, industrial development and economic growth.
Elegbede explained that the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is fully represented in the FTZs to inspect, certify and issue certificates of conformity for goods destined for Nigeria’s Customs territory.
Corroborating this, the Director of Product Certification at SON, Engr. Enebi Onucheyo, disclosed that the agency introduced the Special Economic Zones Conformity Assessment Programme (SEZCAP) in 2024 to ensure strict certification of goods moving into and out of the free trade zones.
He said the scheme, currently being deployed nationwide through SON state offices, is designed to enhance the production, sale and distribution of quality and safe products within special economic zones, both for the Nigerian market and for export.
