50,000 Workers Sacked Due To Scarcity

About fifty thousand workers were sacked in Abuja in the last two months due to the continued scarcity of foreign exchange.

This disclosure was made by the president of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tony Ejinkeonye, when he spoke to The Punch.

Collaborating Ejinkeonye’s point of view, the president, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Frank Jacobs, added that 10 companies had formally notified the association about their intention to discontinue operations before the end of this month.

Ejinkeonye stated except there is quick intervention by the federal government to address the forex exchange problem, more jobs will be lost. He said: “Currently, in Abuja, we have about 50,000 workers that have lost their jobs in the last two months. I must confess this is not a good time for the manufacturing sector.” He explained that many manufacturers operating in Abuja could no longer access foreign exchange to import raw materials, saying those that decide to buy forex from black market could not sell their products as consumers could not pay the high prices.

Ejinkeonye said:  “As manufacturers and industrialists, the scarcity of foreign exchange has affected us in the area of raw materials that need to be imported. We cannot access foreign exchange anymore to import raw materials. “Also, maintenance of some of these facilities has become a problem because the spare parts have to be imported and the inability to get foreign exchange to import them has impacted negatively on our operations.

“Some of our members who are manufacturers have even gone to the extreme of withdrawing their goods from the market and need to increase their prices to reflect the high foreign exchange rate. Many of us are having the problem of retaining our workers because the production is being hampered by lack of raw materials.”

Meanwhile, Arunwa Otteh, the World Bank vice president and treasurer, had called on President Muhammadu Buhari as matters of urgency diversify the economy in order to survive the sharp drop of oil prices. She frowned that the country is ranked 152 of 188 in the Human Development Index decrying that this rating is below average for sub-saharan Africa.