The Vice Chairman Organized Private Sector (OPS), Comrade Hamza Adamu says 54 private companies have shut down operations in Kano due to low business patronage and tough competition.
Hamza Adamu and who is also the senior organising secretary of the textile union, lamented that in the past there were over 30 textile factories in the state, but currently there are not more than two,saying that unfriendly economic policies had also contributed to the relocation of companies.
He said during the union’s recent meeting, most of the companies lamented that they usually paid up to 18 different taxes, ranging from land use tax, sanitation tax, and even levies on their trucks that move on the roads, among others, while others decried that poor electricity supply that has made them spend more on diesel.
The Vice Chairman explained that within the last two years, six chemical, plastic pipes and rubber shoe companies have closed down, along with five hotels, most of them located at Bompai, Challawa and Sharada.
Comrade Hamza revealed that some of them had built outlets in the south and were relocating gradually, urging the state government to introduce policies that will assist industries and attract more investors.
The Kano State Chairman of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Mubarak Yarima noted that most of the manufacturing and processing companies were affected due to their high demand for electricity to run their businesses, but that sadly, its unavailability has pushed them to be spending much on diesel, forcing them to close down.
He said the union had engaged the state government on how the problem could be solved, and received the assurance that the electricity problem would be tackled.
“The obligation of the union is the protection of jobs we have been having contact with companies shutting down, and we have been meeting with the employees’ chair and their unions to devise a means on how they can be catered for,”he said.
Responding,the Permanent Secretary, Kano State Ministry of Commerce, Investment and Industries, Mohammed Danduwa, explained that the state was aware of four companies that had relocated from Kano to Ogun State as a result of poor electricity supply and the high cost of transporting their raw materials due to the high cost of diesel.
He explained that electricity used to be an exclusive affair of the federal government but that with the current adjustments in the provisions in the law, the state is making an effort to ensure that the committee set up to actualise the Ajaokuta- Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline succeeds in its assignment.
On the issue of multiple taxes,the Permanent Secretary pointed out that the Federal and State Governments had their tax laws, whose jurisdictions are all stated in the Nigeria constitution; therefore one cannot come to the state and operate without paying tax.
Danduwa highlighted that, most of the challenges came down to the issue of electricity, but he expressed the hope that when the issue is addressed, many companies would work efficiently.
Radio Nigeria reports that, sources from the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) Kano chapter revealed that,companies were particularly forced out of business by high rates of taxes, epileptic power supply, importation and counterfeiting of products.
Khadija Aliyu.
