Examining Nigeria’s wobbling paper industry
Nigeria is losing N180 billion from non-performance of the three paper mills in the country.
The non-performance of the mills denies the country jobs that could have been created had the paper mills been working.
This is also worsened by the fact that the federal government of Nigeria spends N50 billion on the import of papers annually, according to experts.
Currently, the mainstream print media houses have raised prices of newspapers from N150 to N200. This is due to the poor state of the paper industry and inability of media houses to access foreign exchange with which to import paper from other countries.
The state of Nigeria’s three paper mills leaves nothing to be desired.
The three paper mills, which used to serve the country were Nigeria Paper Mill (NPM)Limited located in Jebba, Kwara State; Nigerian Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC)Limited, Oku-Iboku, Akwa Ibom State; and Nigerian National Paper Manufacturing Company (NNPMC) Limited in Ogun State. However, these are not working.
Hussain Doko Ibrahim, director-general, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), said at a meeting last year that the cost implication of non-performance of NPM in 2006, 2007 and 2008 to the Nigerian economy annually was N7.8 billion, which only reduced to N6.85 billion in 2009, resulting in four-year deficit turnover of N30.25 billion.
The RMRDC boss said that the cost implication of the comatose situation of NNMC between 2006 and 2009 to the economy was N18.76 billion, adding that within the four years considered, the deficit turnover to the economy equalled N74.8 billion.
“The total cost of non-performance of the three mills to the economy within the four-year period was estimated at N153.05 billion in 2009, and this has been calculated to be about N180 billion before the end of 2015,” he said.
“Coupled with this, the delay in commencing production by the mills is hampering the acquisition of the needed transfer of skills and technology which are important objectives of privatisation in developing countries,” he added.
The history of Nigeria’s paper and pulp industry has been a sad tale, according to analysts. In the 1960s and 1970s, the federal government established the three paper mills for the purpose of producing bond paper. The NPM produced 40,480 tons of kraft paper by 1985 and 42,960 in 1986, representing 62.3 percent and 66.17 percent capacity utilisation respectively.
The NNMC performed well and operated profitably, as the volume of newsprint in the company spiked from 28,927 tons in 1989 to 37,581 tons in 1990.
Owing to the optimal utilisation of the mill, importation of newsprint fell drastically to 17.5 percent in 1986 and 12.5 percent in 1987. But this was short-lived as the third mill NNPMC was abandoned in 1983 when the mill was at nearly 85 percent completion. Till the time it was shut down, it did not produce up to five percent capacity, research has shown.
Today, the paper market is dominated by imports from India and other parts of Asia as stakeholders say the privatisation process of the mills was faulty.
Oluwadare Oluwafemi, a professor in the department of agriculture and forestry, University of Ibadan, identified the inability to source long fibre trees as one key reason for the non-performance of the mills.
Oluwafemi lamented the abysmal fund devoted to research institutions, while also calling for the establishmentof pulp and paper institute to save the country from these humongous losses.
“It is unfortunate that 90 percent of papers used in Nigeria are imported,” Oluwafemi said, while presenting a paper entitled, ‘Long Fibre Pulp Production in Nigeria: Prospects and Challenges’.
The professor called for the reversal of the privatisation process, saying that the process was faulty. He equally asked the government to set up ‘Indigenous Long Fibre Pulpwood Improvement Programme’.
On his part, Ukana Akpabio, professor of chemistry at University of Uyo, said the country is yet to utilise enormous pulp and paper materials (fibrous and non-fiborous) in the country, adding that there must be a well-defined strategy to develop the struggling industry.
ODINAKA ANUDU