Amid forex constraints currently confronting Nigeria occasioned by dwindling oil resources, Umaru Ishaku, a professor at the Department of Textile Science and Technology, Faculty of Science at Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, says Nigeria’s 100 percent importation of polymer is hurting the economy and can be averted.
Polymer is used for production of some of the Nigerian currencies (N10, N20 and N50 polymer notes,) as well as major raw material used for production of pipes, leather bags, sachet water and other forms of plastics.
Umaru disclosed this to BusinessDay on the sidelines of his lecture with the theme: “New Polymers” at the 2016 Special Material Lecture held in Abuja.
He said: “Two of our manufacturing plants on polymer are not performing and virtually every household in the country utilise one form of polymer or the other. For instance, if you look at the PVC that is used in constructing pipes in our households and conduit wiring are all made from polymer and we still import the raw materials.
“But with targeted research, we could avert the 100 percent raw material importation on polymer.”
He recalled however that: “When the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) wanted to produce the polymer notes, they resorted to Australia and it costs us billions to print that. I guess that is why the CBN now is laying more emphasis on cashless policy, because of the huge cost of printing money from outside, as we lack the capacity back home to do that.”
In this respect, the university don urged the Federal Government to increase funding and research grants in key areas that could boost industrialisation of the country and avert collapse of industries.
“The pallets of all the pipes both for sewage, water closets, conduit wiring are 100 percent imported, although the pipes are manufactured here, but the raw materials are imported absolutely. These are some of the areas, we are suggesting to the government to invest research grants on for us to build capacity,” he said.
While acknowledging the Federal Government’s effort on re-directing the economy away from oil, he suggested that Nigerian researchers and entrepreneurs could focus on: “Compounding, which is where the major work is, which is done by engineering the polymer to produce the leather and the polyethylene being used in producing leather bags, sachet water and other forms of plastics.
“In Nigeria, we are importing the pallets and are lacking in the compounding, which is an area we could take ownership of by investment in researches.
“It would be noted that some African countries such as South Africa, Algeria and Libya have PVC manufacturing and industries and are already sourcing the raw materials from their respective countries.
“Now that the Federal Government has given directive for all the military and para-military shoes to be sourced from entrepreneurs in Aba, analysts suggested that there was need for the key raw materials not to be imported to encourage industrialists along such value chains.
“If we focus on PVC manufacturing, it would be better for us because this is an area that could open wider opportunities for us and save us huge forex. If we want to diversify, it is a good point to start from,” he said.
