Mr Mustapha Nabegu, Chairman, Leather and Allied Products Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (LAPMAN), in this interview with JOHN OBA, calls for more government’s intervention to improve the leather sector. Excerpts.
What would you say about government’s strive in the leather sector?
Prior to this administration, the leather industry was in total shamble; the sector has been abandoned for long which is the problem of the value chain. if you look at Nigeria, we have a population of about 180 million people, so if at least each Nigerian buys two pairs of shoes every year, that will amount to above 300 million pairs of shoes and we are not producing up to 5% of leathers that Nigerians need, so if we can produce up to 20% of the national requirement, imagine the number of jobs that would create. By so doing, the money that is taking out of this country to purchase leather will remain here, this sector is capital intensive and past administrations neglected it.
But, we thank God for this transformation agenda because first in the history of Nigeria, Leather desk has been established by the ministry of agriculture while desk officers have been assigned and the minister has been helping our people in the area of skill acquisition, access to finance and for the first time also this sector was included in the GES programme and leather producers have been given loans. With this type of attention given to the sector now, the sky will be the limit for leather production in Nigeria.
As time goes on, instead of exporting the leather as raw materials, we will be exporting the finished products. So, as an association, instead of just looking, we will strive to produce quality leather that can compete with any leather produced from any part of the world.
As you can see, we are producing canvas, safety shoes and other leather products.
What is your numerical strength like?
We have about 35,000 members now.
Which other areas do you think the government should concentrate?
Well, the issue of funding is still number one on the list of what should still be done for the sector, because the cost of production in Nigeria is high, so we are hoping that the government will provide a sort of intervention fund for the sector just like it is done in cassava value chain and others.
Also there is the issue of training there is the need to establish training institution that can afford the members the opportunity to be trained and compete vigorous and also the up grading of existing ones, because we have an institute on leather.
Also, there is the issue of local content policy. We need enforcement of this policy to compel Nigerians to patronize local products. You can imagine if the military and paramilitary are made to patronize those that can produce boot to the minimum standard.
Another one is the export extension grant, as I am talking to you, I still have some amount to collect but that scheme is killing the sector because there are loopholes that allows people that don’t have the interest of the sector at heart, who are just looking for what they can get out of the sector. These are the people who will just package whatever they are given.
Since government is given 30% weaver on whatever is imported. These people, what they normally do is that they package something that is not more than $1million and then inflate it just to claim the 30%. Cash based incentive policies are very difficult to implement. If you look at what is happening in the oil sector, the subsidy money is very difficult to manage.
So, we are happy that when we complained, this government listened to us and suspended the grants in order to repackage it in a way that will aide the development of the sector and I believe that whatever they would do they would carry stakeholders along so that we can make our own contributions. So that whatever they are coming with, it will be with our own input.
