Units within some Nigerian agencies and military institutions have expanded their creative skills to locally produce face masks for citizens to help curb the rampaging coronavirus pandemic in the country.
Boss Mustapha, the Chairman Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, had given the go ahead for the mass production of face masks using local fabrics, based on prescribed standard and size, to curtail the spread of the pandemic.
Following this directive, The Nigerian Air Force and Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) are leading the way as they have mobilised their resources for a massive local production of face masks to tackle the health emergency, as an increasing number of people die from the virus. The Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari, died from coronavirus complications on Friday.
According to the Managing Director of the Nigerian Airforce Investments Limited (NAFIL), Uche Nwagwu, an Air Commodore, the efforts of the Air Force is to produce affordable face masks which are scarce commodities at the moment.
“The production of face masks locally by the Nigerian Airforce is a positive local response and contribution to the COVID -19 fight,” Nwagwu told BusinessDay.
He confirmed to BusinessDay on Sunday in a chat that the Air Force has a factory in Kaduna established in 2017 and another recent one in Port Harcourt commissioned on Friday by Chief of Air Staff, Saddique Abubakar. The company in Port Harcourt is primarily for the production of flying suits and overalls, but it has to intervene in the production of face masks because of the peculiar situation in the country.
“We have started production of face masks since March 3. From when we started till about Saturday, April 18, we have produced about 38, 0000 pieces of face masks a lot of which we have sold and we have also given out to our personnel,’’ Nwagwu said.
Employment is also being generated with the production of face masks. Nwagwu said, “Everywhere we go we employ the locals in the neighbouring community. In Kaduna, we had 33 military personnel as tailors and 67 civilians in Port Harcourt, I just brought back 11 tailors and I have recruited 32 civilians, so the bulk of our tailors are actually civilians and this has created employment.”
The face masks appear affordable. The NAFIL boss said “we sell a piece of facemask for N150 which is very affordable. A pack of fifty goes for N7, 500, and that is why we are getting heavy demand. However, we are not trying to maximise profit because of the situation at hand; we cannot rip off people.”
NAFIL said to be the brainchild of Nwagwu, has also in recent months, intensified local production of Air Force uniforms and other essential equipment to boost their production capacity.
BusinessDay findings revealed that NAFIL Air Force uniform company used local tailors from Aba in Abia State for the initial training before training the its own tailors in Kaduna. They also sent some of their tailors to China to be trained.
The Chief of Air Staff, BusinessDay learnt, has been a key facilitator of this local content drive even as NAFIL has already expanded its capacity to produce airforce fatigues and uniforms locally and saving millions in importation.
Similarly, the Nigerian Immigration Service has developed customised face masks for its operatives as part of the effort to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Muhammad Babandede, the Comptroller General of NIS, made this known in a statement issued on by the spokesman of the service, Sunday James in Abuja over the weekend.
The statement noted that the Immigration boss was proud of the effort of the Judith Onyeama, Comptroller of Kwara State Command, and lauded her for initiating the production of the face masks with customised local service colour fabrics.
“Kwara state command came up with the initiative which has received the blessing of the Comptroller General of Immigration. He is appreciative of the various strides taken by the officers all over the federation as they work at the nation’s entry and exit points to ensure compliance with the Federal Government directives,” the statement said.
At the state-owned Cross River Garment Factory in Calabar, the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) has undertaken a quality assurance inspection as where face masks are being produced.
The SON team led by the Cross River State coordinator, Michael Ogbuji, inspected the factory which is using Ankara, a local fabric, to make barrier masks as part of the “No Masks, No Movement” policy of the state government.
The Acting Managing Director of CRGF, Edet Joseph noted in his remarks that the factory’s product is a double layer composite masks with inner liner and high tensile strength of the head harness as well as neat sewing finishes.
According to him, the Ankara material being used for the barrier masks is 100 percent cotton and sourced from neighbouring Abia State.
He said in a statement on Sunday that all precautionary safety measures are being observed in the mass production of the re-usable masks with capacity for 100,000 units per day. It can be used for a maximum of 4 weeks, he said.
Edet Joseph stated that the company, which commenced operations in 2018, was producing largely for the Cross River State Ministry of Health and distributed without charge throughout the state.
Responding after the tour of the production facility, Michael Ogbuji on behalf of the SON Director-General, Osita Aboloma, commended the company’s management for the initiative in response to the Federal Government’s call for sustainable production in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He explained that the inspection was aimed at adding value from the raw materials, processes to the finished products of the barrier masks to ensure that they comply with the standards provided by SON.
The SON coordinator encouraged the company’s management to share necessary technical information regarding the production and quality control checks with SON and assured them of absolute confidentiality.
Other issues discussed with the company’s management include the barrier filtration efficiency, breathing resistance, labelling requirements for identification and traceability in the markets among others.
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