The Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) has announced plans to set up small tanneries or factories in every state across the country to process hides and skin into leather and at the same time cut down consumption of ponmo.
NILEST’s Director-General, Mohammed Yakubu, who also chairs the national leather policy implementation committee, spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, stating that these new tanneries are crucial for providing proper infrastructure and modern technology for effective leather processing.
Yakubu noted that setting up mini tanneries would help reduce the local consumption of hides and skin, known as ‘ponmo’, which is largely due to the lack of enough industries to handle the surplus of hides and skin produced daily. “We are eating the hides and skin as ponmo because if we don’t eat it, the available industries cannot mop all the hides and skin produced,” he explained. He added that leather is a significant national asset with the potential to create jobs and earn foreign exchange.
“Nigeria is not unknown in the area of leather products. We used to have 84 leather industries and some even have branches in Italy and Spain,” Yakubu remarked. “The Nigerian leather industry had branches in Europe. We want that to come back.”
Besides the plan to reduce the consumption of ponmo, the Director-General pointed out that the decline of the leather industry was due to poor infrastructure. To address this, NILEST and the policy implementation committee would keep urging the Federal Government to make favorable concessions, especially in providing affordable electricity, to help revive the industry.
Yakubu emphasized that for Nigeria to compete globally with countries like China, Brazil, or India in the leather sector, there must be a steady and cost-effective power supply. (The Guardian)
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