One million pairs of shoes are produced by more than 80,000 leather makers in Aba each week. With 48 million pairs produced each year at an average price of N2,500 a pair, the industry is said to be worth up to N120 billion.
The industry is currently gaining traction across Africa, but government is not pulling enough strings to stimulate it.
Traders from West African neighbours storm the industrial city every week to buy different product designs, just as Southern African schools are beginning to place orders directly from the shoe makers. Canadians, Europeans and the Chinese are also in the party, placing orders themselves directly or through their Nigerian proxies, BusinessDay was told in Aba.
Ken Anyanwu, secretary of the Association of Leather and Allied Industrialists of Nigeria (ALAN), who produced Nigerian armed forces shoes in 2016, said they are no longer meeting demands.
The Abia leather industry is made up of shoes, trunk boxes and belts. It provides employment for tens of thousands, with many specialising in different stages such as designing, patterning, cutting, skiving, stitching, peeling and finishing. It is made up of clusters such as Powerline, Imo Avenue, Bakassi, Aba North Shoe Plaza, Omemma Traders and Workers, ATE Bag, and Ochendo Industrial Market, comprising input supplers, among others.
However, the industry is in thriving in chaos as the majority of shoe makers in the industrial city are poorly structured and are not registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission. Exports are made informally, making tracking and planning difficult.
“This is where the problem lies. We in Aba have no good machines,” Anyanwu of ALAIN said.
He said this is why the majority of Aba shoe makers are not meeting demands and are overworking themselves once orders are placed.
Aba shoe makers import animal skins from China and many parts of Africa and Europe.
“What happens is that the tanneries in Kano and Kaduna process animal skins and sell them as leather in the global market, earning foreign exchange,” said Chinatu Nwagbara, coordinator of Made-in-Aba Project, who produced shoes for Olusegun Obasanjo in 2016.
“So we go to China and other countries to buy. Sometimes, we buy our products and re-import,” he said.
The Abia State government said in 2016 that Huajian Group in Ethiopia, which made shoes for Ivanka Trump, United States president’s wife, would be coming to Aba.
In September 2017, Sherry Zhang, general manager of Huajian Shoes in Addis Ababa, told BusinessDay in Addis that the company was still interested in setting up a shoe factory in Aba, southeast Nigeria. But this has not happened since. However, a new set of machines have been imported by a new investor in Aba, who plans to modernise the industry, BusinessDay was told.
“We need good roads and we hope that Geometric will come soon to power our firms,” said a shoe maker, who does not want to be mentioned.
Geometric Power Limited is billed to provide electricity to Aba shoe and garment makers.
ODINAKA ANUDU
