Post by Trade facilitator on Feb 20, 2012 7:46:56 GMT 1
Over one million factory hands engaged in the leather and allied products manufacturing companies in Kano State have been off-loaded onto the nation `s already saturated labour market, in the recent times, due to production difficulties.
The development is occurring at a time that Nigeria is estimated to be importing between 80 and 120 million pairs of shoes per annum.
Nigeria is currently the biggest importer of shoes from China, and Italy, and monies expended on the venture run into several billions of Naira.
Industry experts have attributed the extinction of indigenous manufacturing concerns involved in the production of finished leather products to the massive exportation of treated leather, which is used in producing the finished products.
Other factors responsible for the decline of the local leather products industry are listed as including the collapse of critical infrastructure such as electricity and water, the two fundamental infrastructural needs of the leather industry.
Confirming the escalating job losses in the sector, Mustapha Nabegu, chairman, Leather and Allied Products branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said the development was worrisome.
Nabegu said the association was concerned about the matter. He told Business Day: “Current, the mad rush for exportation of leather in primary form, in the name of generating foreign exchange is injurious to the economy.
“LAPAN –The Leather and Allied Products Manufacturers Association of Nigeria represents more than 200 business organisations (BMOs) in the leather production value chain.
“The BMOs which make up LAPAN are located primarily around Kano, with membership spread across at least four geo-political zones, North-West, South-East (mainly Abia and Anambra), South-West (especially) and North-Central.
“Nigeria used to have a vibrant footwear industry with companies such as Bata which is now known as FAMAD, Anita, Silver, Superior Shoes, Lennards, Top Crown, Whanu Shoe, John White, Unik Shoes, Lado Shoes, among others, in operation.
“Most of these companies are either dead or moribund, mainly due to unpatriotic abuse of government policy that has genuinely been put in place to ginger non-oil exports through Export Expansion Grant (EEG), which unfortunately leads to a mad rush of raw material export, to the detriment of local shoe factories.
“In the artisan segment, in Kano alone, we lost not less than 1,000,000 jobs courtesy the failure of the EEG scheme, as well as other factors, the most obvious of these are electricity and water challenges.
“We have also confirmed that about 80 to 120 million pairs of shoes are being imported into Nigeria every year. It is our belief that with little support from government, our local footwear industry is capable of meeting theses need. “This will in turn create hundreds of thousands of jobs, through the value chain, create enormous wealth and also help to conserve our scarce foreign exchange.
“We also want to restate and reconfirm our resolve to the Federal Government of Nigeria transformation agenda, through job creation, wealth and industrial growth” Nabegu further explained.
Also commenting on the issue, Muhammad Sagagi, a Kano- based consultant to some of the collapsed tannery companies, recently told BusinessDay that although the Federal Government had good intentions in conceiving the EEG scheme, the reality is that it is no longer helpful to the nation `s industrial development.
Sagagi suggested that the EEG scheme be scrapped by the Federal Government, as its continued implementation was only benefiting a few individuals, at the expense of the local economy.
According to him, the scheme has been hijacked by a corrupt cartel within the industry, which is out to milk the nation dry, under the pretext of generating foreign exchange for the country, which in the real sense they are not doing.
“As a Nigerian, I am deeply worried by the irregularities in the EEG scheme which from all indications is killing the leather industry in the country, contrary to the rosy picture that the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Finance, and others are painting to the nation.
“As against the picture that the scheme has led to export growth, investment growth, value –addition, and employment generation, I can tell you authoritatively that the scheme is killing our local economy.
“The local economy is being killed in the sense that most indigenous companies are being denied access to the critical raw material that they require to be in operation, by the quest by government to boost foreign exchange earnings from the non-oil sector.
“Go around Challawa where most of the tannery and shoe –making companies in the state, are located, they are all dead”, Sagagi said.
Source:
www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/76-hot-topic/33369-one-million-jobs-lost-to-closure-of-leather-industries-in-kano
Learn more about commodities export in Nigeria @ THE THY GLOBAL INVESTMENT LTD exportfromnigeria.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=78
The development is occurring at a time that Nigeria is estimated to be importing between 80 and 120 million pairs of shoes per annum.
Nigeria is currently the biggest importer of shoes from China, and Italy, and monies expended on the venture run into several billions of Naira.
Industry experts have attributed the extinction of indigenous manufacturing concerns involved in the production of finished leather products to the massive exportation of treated leather, which is used in producing the finished products.
Other factors responsible for the decline of the local leather products industry are listed as including the collapse of critical infrastructure such as electricity and water, the two fundamental infrastructural needs of the leather industry.
Confirming the escalating job losses in the sector, Mustapha Nabegu, chairman, Leather and Allied Products branch of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said the development was worrisome.
Nabegu said the association was concerned about the matter. He told Business Day: “Current, the mad rush for exportation of leather in primary form, in the name of generating foreign exchange is injurious to the economy.
“LAPAN –The Leather and Allied Products Manufacturers Association of Nigeria represents more than 200 business organisations (BMOs) in the leather production value chain.
“The BMOs which make up LAPAN are located primarily around Kano, with membership spread across at least four geo-political zones, North-West, South-East (mainly Abia and Anambra), South-West (especially) and North-Central.
“Nigeria used to have a vibrant footwear industry with companies such as Bata which is now known as FAMAD, Anita, Silver, Superior Shoes, Lennards, Top Crown, Whanu Shoe, John White, Unik Shoes, Lado Shoes, among others, in operation.
“Most of these companies are either dead or moribund, mainly due to unpatriotic abuse of government policy that has genuinely been put in place to ginger non-oil exports through Export Expansion Grant (EEG), which unfortunately leads to a mad rush of raw material export, to the detriment of local shoe factories.
“In the artisan segment, in Kano alone, we lost not less than 1,000,000 jobs courtesy the failure of the EEG scheme, as well as other factors, the most obvious of these are electricity and water challenges.
“We have also confirmed that about 80 to 120 million pairs of shoes are being imported into Nigeria every year. It is our belief that with little support from government, our local footwear industry is capable of meeting theses need. “This will in turn create hundreds of thousands of jobs, through the value chain, create enormous wealth and also help to conserve our scarce foreign exchange.
“We also want to restate and reconfirm our resolve to the Federal Government of Nigeria transformation agenda, through job creation, wealth and industrial growth” Nabegu further explained.
Also commenting on the issue, Muhammad Sagagi, a Kano- based consultant to some of the collapsed tannery companies, recently told BusinessDay that although the Federal Government had good intentions in conceiving the EEG scheme, the reality is that it is no longer helpful to the nation `s industrial development.
Sagagi suggested that the EEG scheme be scrapped by the Federal Government, as its continued implementation was only benefiting a few individuals, at the expense of the local economy.
According to him, the scheme has been hijacked by a corrupt cartel within the industry, which is out to milk the nation dry, under the pretext of generating foreign exchange for the country, which in the real sense they are not doing.
“As a Nigerian, I am deeply worried by the irregularities in the EEG scheme which from all indications is killing the leather industry in the country, contrary to the rosy picture that the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Ministry of Finance, and others are painting to the nation.
“As against the picture that the scheme has led to export growth, investment growth, value –addition, and employment generation, I can tell you authoritatively that the scheme is killing our local economy.
“The local economy is being killed in the sense that most indigenous companies are being denied access to the critical raw material that they require to be in operation, by the quest by government to boost foreign exchange earnings from the non-oil sector.
“Go around Challawa where most of the tannery and shoe –making companies in the state, are located, they are all dead”, Sagagi said.
Source:
www.businessdayonline.com/NG/index.php/news/76-hot-topic/33369-one-million-jobs-lost-to-closure-of-leather-industries-in-kano
Learn more about commodities export in Nigeria @ THE THY GLOBAL INVESTMENT LTD exportfromnigeria.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=general&action=display&thread=78
