Ex-Imo/Abia MAN chief lists benefits as six branch firms set to join National Council

By Saby Elemba,  Owerri

A former chairman of the Imo/Abia branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Romeo Nwabueze Anyanwu, has outlined the benefits derivable from membership of the National Council of MAN, the organisation’s policy-making body which makes rules for all the branches.

One of the benefits, according to him, is that the member company is usually present when certain important things are discussed, because it has its own person at the National Council.

“You know when a decision is being taken, there is a time lag between when a decision is taken and when implementation comes. So that your member will tell you the way things will go, he will now report to his management, ‘Let us work like this, so that when that policy comes into effect it will not take us (the company) by surprise,'” Anyanwu stated in a telephone interview.

He also noted that being a National Council member helps a company to have firsthand information on an economic policy the government would want to take.

This is coming after the Imo/Abia branch of MAN, led by Jude Eluma, its chairman, presented names of six of its company members to the National Council of MAN for approval and admittance into the Council.

The company members nominated for approval by the national body, according to Eluma, include Elchem Limited, Akachi Industries Limited, Inner Galaxy Steel Co. Limited, Masters Energy Ind. Limited, Hi Tech Diagnostics Limited and Gmicord Interbiz Nigeria Limited.

“In a short while from now, it is expected that this list will increase as additional list of some members has been forwarded for nomination/approval into National Council of MAN,” Eluma, who is also the managing director of Elchem Limited, told a galaxy of captains of industry from Imo/Abia branch of MAN in Owerri.

Speaking further on the telephone in response to a question about the responsibilities of the National Council of MAN, Anyanwu, who is also a lawyer, said the Council’s members also interface between the manufacturers and the government because MAN is the apex leader of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) in the country.

“In fact, for the Organised Private Sector, they are the ones that relate to the government; they are the ones that tell the government what the problems and challenges are; they are the ones that when the government makes a budget, they tell government that this one will work and this will not work, etc; they review it so that they can balance it for both the private sector and government,” said Anyanwu.

“They also report to the government on the consequences and implementation of the budget whether it is working or not, among other things,” he said.