How FG can revive dying paper mills

The Federal Government is expected to pay close attention to the country’s paper mills, which are struggling and require urgent revival.

According to experts, government should help in funding long fibre production and research institutions, while addressing sabotage emanating from players who bought over the paper mills during privatisation.

During an interaction among players at the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria head office in Lagos, 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 poor level of funding devoted to research institutions, while also calling for the establishment of pulp and paper institute to save the country from 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.

Samson Ololade Ogundele, ex-senior manager, Nigeria Paper Mill Limited, Jebba, Kwara State, said: “The co-investor that bought the Nigeria Paper Mill (NPM) Limited did not buy it to help Nigeria.”

“I know it was valued at about N30 billion in Nigeria as at 1995, but this same mill was given to the investor at N334 million in 2008. The aim of the government in handing over the mill is to create jobs and improve the economy. The majority of Nigerians working in Nigeria Paper Mill –both junior and senior—are all casual,” Ogundele disclosed, adding that the Federal Government must re-visit the privatisation in spite of the fact that it is the only paper mill working at the moment.

Nigeria is losing N180 billion from non-performance of the three paper mills in the country. The non-performance of the mills also means that jobs that could have been created are lost to other countries.  This is also worsened by the fact that the federal government of Nigeria spends N50 billion on the import of papers annually.

The three paper mills include: 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.

Hussain Doko Ibrahim, director-general, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), recently said 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 further 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.

 

ODINAKA ANUDU

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