Aba leather, garment sub-sectors need re-tooling, fund

Aba leather industry consists mainly of shoes, bags and trunk boxes. The industry is worth more than N120 billion, with players numbering over 50,000.

Four million pairs of shoes are produced each week in the city by players who fall mainly within the micro, small and medium scale category. Ariaria Market hosts the leather industry in Aba and has nine clusters. The industry is already gathering momentum with direct and indirect sales surging consistently since 2016.

Apart from leather, Aba is also one of the biggest producers of garments, which command both local and international patronage.

Between January and June 2017, over N1.6 billion worth of shoes were bought from Aba by the Nigerian military, individuals and corporate organisations. This included 50,000 pairs of military boots by the Nigerian Army, estimated at N300 million; orders from the Nigerian Navy, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), the Police and Civil Defence Corps, according to Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State governor. This in addition to more than 50,000 pairs of shoes bought by Nigerian Prisons, as well as direct orders for the supply of thousands of pairs to school children in Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) camps in Nigeria’s north-east.

That said, Aba leather and garment sub-sectors need to upgrade their tools in order to compete better with global brands locally and internationally. Part of the challenges faced by small-scale leather makers is poor product finishing and absence of efficient and high-grade binding or sewing machines. Most shoemakers say their major challenge is lack of funds to purchase good equipment and machinery that would enable them to compete better.

Aba is competing with China, Italy and Spain with better finished shoes, slippers, bags and trunk boxes and cannot outplay these countries without efficient machinery.

The Bank of Industry (BoI) has agreed to fund Aba shoemakers and could likely go directly to procure machines for them, a huge mistake some external funding organisations made in the past by procuring wrong machines, thereby destroying the sector they came to save. What is needed is involving shoemakers in the procurement process. If possible, they should be allowed to buy the machines themselves while the BoI provides the funds.

The same handshake should be extended to the thriving garment industry. These two sub-sectors hold huge economic potential for Nigeria.

ODINAKA ANUDU

The writer can be reached via odinakaanudu25@gmail.com  or +2348067478413