MAN Warns N1.92tn Credit Decline Derailing Nigeria’s Manufacturing Growth

MAN warns shrinking credit access threatens industrial growth and undermines implementation of Nigeria’s manufacturing policy.

Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has decried the severe financial constraints besetting the manufacturing sector, which it said suffered credit contraction of N1.92 trillion in 2025.

MAN made the disclosure Tuesdayin a public statement by Director-General of MAN, Mr. Segun Ajayi-Kadir, titled, “MAN Position on the Sharp Decline in Credit to the Manufacturing Sector.”

It warned that persistent credit squeeze could directly sabotage the successful execution of Nigeria Industrial Policy, 2025.

The association lamented that “with commercial borrowing costs remaining actively hostile at an average of 24.4 per cent prime lending rates and 33.8 per cent maximum lending rates, long-term capital investments are unviable”. 

MAN stated, “Starving factories of affordable credit blocks technology upgrades and prevents operators from maintaining optimal capacity utilisation or expanding local manufacturing plants. 

“It is practically impossible to build a 21st-century industrial economy when forcing factories to fund their capital footprint through 19th-century primitive capital constraints.”

The statement said, “According to the data, commercial bank credit allocation to manufacturing contracted by N1.92 trillion, from N.53 trillion in December 2024, to N6.61 trillion in December 2025.