The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has raised concerns that Nigeria’s declining headline inflation is yet to translate into lower production costs for manufacturers, urging the monetary and fiscal authorities to tackle the structural factors keeping businesses expensive to operate.
MAN Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, made the call in a statement while reacting to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) inflation report, which showed headline inflation easing marginally to 15.39 per cent in August 2026 from 15.43 per cent in July.
The 0.04 percentage-point decline, according to MAN, represents only a modest improvement and does not necessarily indicate that manufacturers are experiencing a corresponding reduction in the cost of producing goods.
“For manufacturers, the critical issue is whether the cost of producing goods is declining,” Ajayi-Kadir said.
He said MAN viewed the moderation in inflation as a positive development, noting that greater price stability was important for business planning, investment decisions and consumer welfare.
However, he cautioned that the marginal decline suggested that the improvement remained fragile.
The MAN chief said manufacturers continued to contend with high energy costs, logistics constraints, exchange-rate pressures, elevated raw-material costs and multiple fiscal and regulatory charges.These structural costs, he argued, could prevent businesses from benefiting fully from a moderation in headline inflation.
“MAN therefore views the August inflation outcome as an opportunity to move from simply managing inflation to addressing the structural costs that keep Nigerian manufacturing expensive,” he said.
From inflation control to production-cost reduction.
The association is calling on the Federal Government to use the current period of relative inflation moderation to introduce targeted measures aimed at reducing production costs and improving productivity.
According to MAN, the objective should go beyond bringing down the headline inflation rate to creating conditions in which manufacturers can produce more efficiently and competitively.
Such measures, the association said, should ultimately support higher investment, increased employment, stronger industrial output and improved competitiveness.
The latest inflation figure therefore presents a wider policy challenge: while lower inflation can provide a more stable macroeconomic environment, manufacturers need to see the gains reflected in the actual cost of energy, finance, logistics, imported inputs, raw materials and regulatory compliance.
For the industrial sector, MAN’s position is that sustained disinflation will have greater economic significance when it begins to translate into lower unit production costs and improved operating margins.
