Trade Minister pledges support for beer producers, manufacturing sector

The Nigerian Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Adeniyi Adebayo says the Federal Government is ready to support beer producers to keep them in business in the face of daunting challenges.

Mr Adebayo said this when he received the representatives of the Beer Sectorial Group of the nation’s manufacturing sector led by the Managing Director of International Breweries, Mr Hugo Rocha in Abuja.

The Minister said that government is fully aware of the challenges facing the manufacturing sector and was doing everything within its power to address them.

Mr Adebayo added that the Central Bank has given assurances that attention would be given to manufacturers using local raw materials.

The secretary of the Beer Sectorial Group, Mr Tony Eneh listed the challenges facing producers of beer to include devaluation, restricted access to foreign exchange, insecurity, escalating logistics cost, covid-19, ease of doing business, increasing excise duty, multiplicity of taxes and tax stamp.

He noted that despite the increase in the yearly taxes paid by the beer producers, their net profit has been on the decline due to the various challenges listed by them.

Mr Eneh therefore sought the support of the Minister towards achieving excise deferment for year 2022 and beyond and other support that may be deemed necessary.

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