Sunday Osadolor Odaro, chairman, Cowrie Paint Company Limited, has called on the Federal Government to regulate the production of paints in the country by manufacturers.
Odaro made this call in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay in Benin City.
The paint maker, who says he pioneered the manufacturing of paints in the state, noted that the sector had been infiltrated with quacks who knew nothing about the business of paint making.
He however listed some of the challenges in the sector to include, non-regulation of the industry by Federal Government agencies, lack of adequate infrastructure, such as water and roads, and others, describing the demand for paint products as not a high priority item but that of prestige.
According to him, there are many challenges confronting investor in the paints industry. The first challenge is that the government of this country has not done anything to enforce or implement standards as far as building and other materials are concern. “There is no standard for quality. So, any product that does not have standard, obviously competition for sale is very wide as people are producing paint in their own house and use it for government projects.
“The society and governments allow them to produce, so to say, to produce anything and governments itself are buying their paints,” he said.
IDRIS UMAR MOMOH
