Stakeholders look beyond 59% local content to cut job, foreign exchange losses

Stakeholders in the Nigerian economic project are looking forward to a ramping up of the current local raw material sourcing capacity, which stands at 58.58 percent, to reduce job and foreign exchange losses arising from importation of these inputs from other countries.

The stakeholders, including manufacturers, intermediate firms, the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Organised Private Sector, among others, say improving the quality of local raw materials, as well as increasing awareness of their availability to manufacturers, would also improve the quality of products manufactured locally, while closing the wide gap between resource potential and economic performance.

Abdu Bulama, minister of science and technology, says Nigeria has 44 solid minerals in commercial quantity  and is a leading global player in a number of agro-allied commodities that can serve manufacturing companies, reduce poverty and create wealth.

According to Bulama, the inability of micro-, small- and medium-scale manufacturers to grow at the same pace as multinationals and conglomerates, in terms of industrial raw material requirements, has resulted in a huge portion of local resources being left  untapped, while some are exported without any value-addition.

“These lead to massive importation of raw materials and job losses,” the minister said yesterday in Lagos, during the ‘Second Nigerian Raw Materials Exposition’, organised by the RMRDC.

Out of the 44 available solid minerals, only 13 are actually being mined, processed and marketed. Some of the available solid minerals include kaolin, baryte, limestone, dolomite, feldspar, glass sand, ganstones , gold, iron ore, lead-zinc, tin (and its associated minerals), and recently gypsum, among others. 

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), availability of these minerals opens up opportunities in the areas of exports and use in domestic industries for generation of foreign exchange and internal revenue, as well as emergence of new industrial and downstream products.

The NBS also says it provides opportunities for increased employment of Nigerians, particularly in the rural areas, where the minerals are found, stressing that the solid minerals sector can very easily be the largest employment sector of the economy, since deposits abound in virtually every state of the federation.

However, manufacturers still move out of the country to import these locally available raw materials.

For instance, cement makers spend N3.32 billion ($20m) on importing gypsum, according to Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, director-general, RMRDC.

“Despite the huge availability of resources, the industrial sector is yet to take full advantage of the economic potentials of gypsum value addition and creation of industrial sector linkages,’’ he said recently in Abuja.

Ceramics and glass makers also import feldspar, findings have shown.

Walid Jibrin, chairman, governing board, RMRDC, says there is need to focus on ramping up raw materials resource assistance to the MSMEs, which form the majority of resource-based manufacturing concerns, adding that there is need to redirect focus on increasing local patronage of high quality  raw materials or intermediate inputs.

ODINAKA ANUDU