Manufacturing’s robust performance in 2014 justifies call for industry-specific incentives

A leap in manufacturing’s contribution to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), huge investments in cement, sugar and automotive industries, as well as a surge in capacity utilisation within the year are indications that the sector can perform better in 2015 if the Federal Government pays more attention to broad-based, industry- specific incentives, rather than the individual-type motivations, stakeholders say.

“Majority of the members interviewed are of the opinion that once the government continues with broad-based incentives, the possibility of capacity utilisation improving further is high,” says the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), in its most recent economic review.

“What this translates to in the economic-wide aggregate, is

Education jobs rising amidst concerns over falling standards

The education sector, particularly the private segment, dominated economic activity, generating most of the jobs in Nigeria’s formal sector in the first nine months of the year, but this comes amid widening concerns on the declining standards of learning across the country and the spill-over of poorly skilled manpower in the market place.

The Education and Manufacturing sectors generated the most jobs in both the first and second quarters of 2014, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics show.

Education came first, with 23,643 jobs or 31.10% of the total in Q1, increasing by 5,417 or 22.91% to 29,060 new jobs in the second quarter, 36.90% of the total,

In the third quarter, 21,154 additional jobs were generated in the sector, also showing

Eurozone business growth slows in September, PMI survey finds

Eurozone business growth cooled in September for a second consecutive month, dropping to its slowest pace since December, a survey suggests.

The latest Markit Composite Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) fell to 52.3 from August's 52.5.

A reading above 50 indicates growth.

Modest growth in Europe's biggest economy, Germany, provided some cheer, but the eurozone was brought down by stagnation elsewhere, particularly in France, where PMI fell to 49.1.

Manufacturing across the eurozone fared worse than the service sector, with the PMI reading falling to 50.5, the lowest measure since July of last year.

"The survey paints a picture of ongoing malaise in the eurozone economy," said Chris Williamson, Markit's chief economist.

"With growth of output and

Manufacturing GDP to grow on back of auto industry investment

The proposed investments in assembly operations by Peugeot Automobiles of Nigeria (PAN), Innoson Vehicle Manufacturers, VON Nigeria, among other automobile dealerships in Nigeria, are expected to push up the manufacturing sector’s contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), BusinessDay has learnt.

The implication of this is that motor vehicles and assembly’s current contribution of 0.8 percent to the manufacturing sector will increase significantly, going by the volume of ongoing and proposed investments in the sub-sector.

Consequently, the manufacturing sector’s current GDP contribution of 9 percent, which represents about $46 billion of Nigeria’s $510 billion GDP, is also expected to increase considerably.

German industrial production jumped 1.9% in July

German industry has posted its strongest month in almost two and a half years.

The Economy Ministry said industrial production was up 1.9% in July, lifted by an increase in manufacturing and construction output.

It is a big improvement from June when industrial production rose just 0.4%.

It is another piece of strong data from Germany. On Thursday data showed that industrial orders rose at the strongest rate in the more than a year in July.

However last month the ministry released