As an answer to Nigeria call for increased direct foreign investment in the country as a way of not only attracting foreign exchange to cushion the effect of the present recession witnessed in the country, but also create jobs across the various job cadres, Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company will in August this year commence full production of syringes in the country.
Located on an 8000 square meter of land area in Onna Local Government of Akwa Ibom State, Jubilee Syringe which will be the first syringe manufacturing company in Nigeria, second only to South Africa in the whole of Africa, intends to kick off with a start up production capacity of between 350 to 400 million syringes annually, with provision for expanding its production capacity to 1billion syringes by 2018.
This estimated 350 – 400 million production lines Jubilee Syringe intend to start-up with in Nigeria, far overshoots that of South Africa, as the South African Company has a production capacity of only 93 million, making Jubilee Syringe, of course, upon completion and commencement of operations the largest syringe production company in the entire African continent.
Owned by Onur Kumral, a Turkish-born business man and investor, whose investments spanned over 17 countries of the world, and having believe that Akwa Ibom has good development policies and adequate security, in addition to the overwhelming support provided by Governor Udom Emmanuel’s administration, he was spurred to confidently take the risk of bringing such huge investment as Jubilee Syringe into the country.
According to Kumral, even though the company is in Nigeria to make profit, its primary aim is not only to create jobs, but also to help in stabilising the nation’s economy and add value to Nigerians through training and retraining.
His promise of adding value to Nigerians was realised when Jubilee Syringe recently sent 12 Nigerians to Istanbul, Turkey, for advance training on key areas of Injection Machines. These 12 Nigerians were trained on the operation of Injection Moulding Machines, Maintenance of Moulds and Quality Control.
Kumral had stated in an interview recently that there is this situation in Nigeria right now where the country is losing huge dollars daily through importations and noted that there must be deliberate efforts by all to stop it.
“If you are losing your dollars, you arrest the situation by simply stopping importations. And this arrest is possible only when you start producing and manufacturing inside your country. If you manufacture, you save huge dollars and use it for something else,” he advised.
Zubeyir Gulabi, Jubilee Syringe managing director for Nigeria said while receiving the 12 Nigerians who returned from Turkey, that they are the future of industrialization in the state and the nation. He observed that there are plans by Jubilee Syringe to send more Nigerians for training especially in the area of safety, packaging and printing.
Speaking with journalists on the plans the company has and the reason for coming to Nigeria, Kumral said they are impressed with the efforts of the governments at various level to encourage foreign investors and they believe that if they take the bold step and come into the country it will also encourage others to do the same.
“We are trying to encourage manufacturers to come into the country by establishing huge firms first. Do not forget that these syringe factory raw materials are in Nigeria, produced by Nigerian Petrochemical companies, and of course, all the machineries needed to start the production of syringes in Nigeria has arrived the country,” he explained.
He said their decision to berth in Akwa Ibom is borne out of their understanding of the track records of the state governor, Udom Emmanuel, who they have known over the years with huge experience in the financial institution for quite a long time with great reputation.
“He gave us the assurance that Nigeria is the right market for such huge investment. His support has been quite tremendous and we are quite encouraged by this. We assured him that with such support from his government, we were ready to swing into action in the state. There is great potential in Africa,”Kumral added.
