Pharm Patrick Ajah, the Managing Director, Chief Executive, May & Baker Nigeria, has denounced the scarcity of foreign exchange (Forex) and multiple duties in the economy, saying that they are causing harm to the manufacturing sector.
While addressing the issue at the company’s Customers’ Forum in Lagos, Ajah urged the government to curb unfriendly policies and other problems affecting the effectiveness of doing business in the country.
However, he stated that Forex is the company’s principal method of exchanging products imported from overseas and the rate at which Forex is fluctuating is getting out of hand, and making businesses challenging and difficult to carry out at ease.
Ajah also mentioned that the harassment from several police checkpoints especially while transporting from Lagos to North is another mitigating factor, which makes ease of doing business worse.
While commending the customers, Ajah said the organization would ensure that they work harder to support them in 2023 as well as to maintain the collaboration and impact on their business during the year.
He announced that the organization targets to deliver N20 billion in revenue in 2023 financial year. While he also disclosed other significant investments the organization has carried out such as acquiring new machines and machine parts to step up the company’s capacity to produce more to meet the growing needs of their products in the marketplace.
While 2022 has been another tough business year for the organization due to the impact of Covid-19, and the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine which has delimit the flow of business globally. Ajah stated that it was difficult for the organization to deliver the budget as projected.
The organization, however, was ablee to deliver 86 percent of the budget in 2022. This was not a bad result given the challenges already enumerated, he said.
