Revival of Nigeria’s manufacturing hangs on vibrant extractive industry
Nigeria’s manufacturing industry will only see a remarkable turnaround when there is a vibrant extractive industry that will free raw materials for the real sector.
The extractive industry of Africa’s largest economy is still stymied by absence of a convivial environment and laws that will encourage investment in the solid minerals sector.
This has a negative impact on the real sector as players in cement, glass, ceramics, chemicals and many other industries that depend on solid mineral inputs still rely on import of raw materials that are locally available.
“For any country to have a vibrant manufacturing, it must have a vibrant extractive industry,” said John Aluya, managing director/CEO, Crystal Glass Nigeria Limited, at the press briefing for the announcement of the 3rdManufacturing Partnership for African Development (mPAD) organised by the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) and Spintelligent Pty Limited in Lagos.
“Without a vibrant extractive industry, these resources will remain there for life. What we are simply asking the government to do is to develop the extractive industry,” Aluya added.
The health of the non-metallic products sector such as cement, glass, ceramics and chalk depends heavily on the state of solid minerals. While cement makers need limestone, gypsum, fly ash and shale, among others, ceramics producers require feldspars and quartz/silica.
Similarly, production of glass requires silica sand, soda ash, dolomite and limestone, among others, all of which are raw minerals. Despite some level of improvement recorded in the sector through backward integration, some local manufacturers still bring in solid minerals from other markets.
Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, director-general, Raw Materials and Research Development Council (RMRDC), had in 2014 said that cement manufacturers spent $20 million annually on import of gypsum.
Cement makers have achieved over 90 percent of local input preference in limestone, but they sometimes resort to importing gypsum owing to poor quality of the locally available one, industry sources told Real Sector Watch.
According to Shehu Sani, president, Miners Association of Nigeria, the country’s extractive industry was bogged down by lack of capital, which was not addressed by previous governments.
Sani told Real Sector Watch that the industry was capital intensive and needed government intervention to make it a truly viable and revenue-generating sector.
He pointed out that there was the need to bring in new technology that would facilitate beneficiation and other activities.
According to MAN president, some companies were involved in the export of these minerals, even when local manufacturers needed them at factories, lamenting that this was not ideal for a country talking about diversification.
Patrick Eguakhide Oaikhinan, professor of ceramics engineering and CEO of Epina Technologies Limited, said the basic problem in the sector was lack of skilled manpower. According to Oaikhinan, developing the sector required a deliberate strategy to train Nigerians who would do beneficiation.
“There is lack of significant number of professionals with appropriate skills and expertise in the ceramics manufacturing business in Nigeria. There is also an absence of avenues for people interested in ceramics manufacturing business to pursue their ambitions, as no university or higher institution in Nigeria offers training in ceramics science/engineering/technology,” he said, while calling on the government to step in through skills development, funding and adequate data gathering.
ODINAKA ANUDU