Nigeria manufacturers gathered in Lagos last month to showcase their wares and call attention to challenges hindering the manufacturing sector, writes Dike Onwuamaeze

The big and small manufacturers in Nigeria gathered in their hundreds from the east, west, north and south of the country to showcase Made in Nigeria products, promote public awareness and patronage for them and also discuss their challenges and future prospects of manufacturing in Nigeria.

The occasion was the three-day Made-in-Nigeria Exhibition that was part of the activities to mark the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) 50th Annual General Meeting (AGM). The exhibition took place between October 18 and 20, 2022.

Welcoming them at the Oriental Hotel, Lagos was the President of MAN, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, who assured his guests that MAN and the Nigerian industrial sector as a whole would rise to the occasion and ensure that they build on the existing capacities and continue to improve on the quality and competitiveness of Nigerian manufactured products.

Ahmed said: “Let me therefore, welcome you and urge you to move around the exhibition ground and see the extent to which the manufacturing sector can meet the desire of Nigerians for a self-reliant economy. Indeed, given the size of the Nigerian market, achieving self-reliance will not only strengthen and deepen our economy, it will position us to play a dominant role in continental market.”  

Among the numerous exhibitors of Made in Nigeria trade fair and exhibition was the Chief Executive Officer/Chief Strategist of the Crestycrisp Enterprises, Ms. Yange D. Janet, a small scale manufacturer and dealer in coconut products. Janet told THISDAY that she started manufacturing food products made from coconut in 2019 to provide healthier alternative sources of nutrients Nigerians, especially those that are living with diabetics, hypertension, obesity and cancer.

Janet said: “Our products are natural and our major raw material is coconut. We use coconut to provide healthier alternatives for those that eat cake, bread, snacks, etc., which are healthier than eating food with high cholesterol content and unhealthy ingredients.”

She said that her initial challenge was explaining her products to consumers “because people did not know that coconut has other good benefits apart from just chewing it.” But currently, the market penetration of her products have increased that she is finding it difficult to cope with the market demand. “We do production from Monday to Friday and yet do not have the capacity to meet the demand for our products,” she said.

Janet’s challenges are primarily finance and access to coconuts. “My challenges, like every other small business, are finance and sourcing of raw materials. The quality of Nigerian coconut is unreliable and more expensive. This is why we source coconut from Ghana only. You cannot trust the quality of Nigerian coconut,” she said.

Another industrialist at the fair who came all the way from Aba, Abia State, was the Chief Executive Officer of the Libracin Natural Medicine Industry Limited, Dr. Bestman Azubuike N. Anyatonwu, whose mission “is innovating herbal medicine for good health.” His products could be packaged in capsules, tablet and in tea bags.

He told THISDAY that he is sourcing all his raw materials, which is one major eason he is still in business in spite of the high exchange rate between the Naira and the Dollar.

But his main challenge is low recognisation of indigenous pharmaceutical products by Nigeria’s government that should have been publicising the use of natural medicine the way governments of India and China have recognised theirs and are patronising them.

He said: “These things are supposed to be recognised in the health sector so that a patient will have the right to choose the kind of medication he or she will use, be it alternative or conventional medicine. By that we will create market for this business and generate employment opportunities in our economy.  

“The other challenges we are having are power supply and poor access to foreign exchange to import machineries and spare parts. We can consume 50 litres of diesel in just two hours of operation. It is adding to our cost of production. But our raw materials are indigenous.”

However, the General Manager, Marketing, Tower Alloys Industries Limited, Mr. Rajneesh Rajan Gupta, said that he was at the exhibition fair to promote a household brand.    

Gupta told THISDAY that all the raw materials utilised by Tower Alloys are sourced locally through recycling of used aluminum products. “We produce aluminum products like roofing sheets, coils. Everything that we are producing is from indigenous resources, primarily aluminum scrap that we collect and reprocess to extract pure aluminum out of them. And that is how we are producing high quality aluminum products. It is a purely Nigerian company that is driven by Nigerian resources only.

“We are the market leaders when it comes to cooking products. In the roofing sector our roofing sheet is already a household name. We hold a dominant position as far as branding and distribution are concerned and we have representatives across Nigeria. We are the number one integrated aluminum producer in Nigeria.”

Yet, Tower Alloys operation in Nigeria is faced with two major challenges: logistics and power supply. “So, if we are able to get consistent power the benefit will be passed to our customers who will enjoy better products at much affordable prices,” Gupta said.

For the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Coleman Technical Industries Limited (CTIL), Mr. George Olutope Onafowokan, the exhibition was an opportunity to display Coleman’s wires and cables products.  

Onafowokan said that the CTIL, the manufacturer of Coleman Cables and Wires, is committed to manufacturing quality electrical and telecommunications wires and cables that meet and exceed customers’ expectation and the ISO 9001:2015 requirements.

He said that the CTIL is poised to increase its output from two million to 10 million fibre count with its new $40 million investment in fiber. This investment would provide solution for over 50 per cent market demand for cables and wires in the Sub-Saharan Africa.

He also disclosed that 100 per cent of the cables needed for the Train Seven Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas’ (NLNG) project would be made in Nigeria by Coleman.

“We believe that made in Nigeria is better. Building in Nigeria and believing in Nigeria is the reason for our work,” Onafowokan said, adding that the good news is that the CTIL’s first 8000 ton plant is being built by Coleman. It is the biggest plant in Sub-Saharan Africa. We expect by Q1 2023 to have 350 tons per day production in Nigeria, at the same time we are building a 3000 tons per month aluminum casting rod plant in Nigeria. So, we are solving backward integration.

“I can actually say that in Nigeria since 2017, we have actually been recycling copper in the country and almost 60 to 70 per cent of our copper rods are produced in Nigeria today and that is where the advantages are. Nigerians are actually not buying made in China copper today but made in Nigeria copper wire.”

The fair also attracted exhibitors from Nigeria’s petrochemical industries that included the Dangote Group and the Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited that exhibited their fertilizer products. But the Dangote Group’s exhibition was not limited to fertilizer. It also displayed heavy duty trucks that were manufactured in Nigeria and refined sugar products.

The Head of Corporate Communications of Indorama, Mr. Jossy Nkwocha, said that Indoramah was at the fair to exhibit its fertilizer and polymer products.

Nkwocha said: “We produce several grades of polymers that are used for manufacturing different kinds of plastics. Today, in the world, plastics are the in thing. Almost everything you see is made of plastics. So, Indoramah helps Nigeria’s industrialisation in the area of plastics.

“Indoramah is also producing three million metric tons of urea every year. And they are also helping in the presidential fertilizer initiative and agricultural revolution in Nigeria. We have a new one called Nem Coted Urea, which helps in making harvest very robust.”  

However, operators in the petrochemical sector are hampered by acute shortage of gas supply to sustain their production at full capacity. This shortage has persisted despite the claims in the government circles that Nigeria is more of a gas oriented economy than crude oil, a claim that is made than practalise.   

Ironically, Nigeria is supplying gas to other countries without meeting the needs of its local industries. “The gas supply is not as much as we would want it. We are into producing things that would drive the industrial and agro revolution,” an operator in the sector said.

The MAN also used the fair to counter the perception that made in Nigeria products are substandard. Ahmed who was on his last official assignment as the president of MAN, said: “First of all, I think the perception is getting a little behind reality. The reality of Nigerian manufacturing today is that in many areas the quality is increasing and reaching international standard.

“There are some of our manufacturers who are producing their products after fulfilling every international standard in the world. I cannot mention their names but they are many and increasing. We have seen here today as we go around that many of our products’ quality are at the level of international standard. The Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) is indeed actively pursuing our manufacturers to work to standard.”

He explained that the unfortunate thing is that sub-standard products are being smuggled into the country and in some cases packaged and sold as Made in Nigeria products.   

He also persuaded Nigerians to embrace the consumption of made in Nigeria products. “It is important that Nigeria should begin to look at the issue more practically. Do not just reject made in Nigeria because somebody thinks that they are not good enough. Check them out. Go to all our supermarkets you will see that made in Nigeria are displayed on their shelves along with foreign products and in many cases are of higher quality than imported ones.

“What Nigerians should understand is that the more they support the Nigerian manufacturer by buying made in Nigeria the more the Nigerian manufacturer will increase his quality, improve his delivery and also reduces cost and I think that when we do that the prospect of massive improvement in the economic activity will arise.

“We have a huge market and there is no reason we will not capture that market. We do not need to rely on imports.

“But, it is also important that the government will continue to create the condition that will enable Nigerian manufacturers to improve the quality of their products at reduced costs.

“Our production cost is very high due to infrastructure deficiency. Most of our members do not get up to 50 per cent of their power requirement from the national grid. We are witnessing significant rise in the price of diesel for those using diesel to supplement their power. Our roads are in terrible shape. So, delivering your products also cost a lot more money.”

Founded on January 22, 1995, THISDAY is published by THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LTD., 35 Creek Road Apapa, Lagos, Nigeria with offices in 36 states of Nigeria , the Federal Capital Territory and around the world. It is Nigeria’s most authoritative news media available on all platforms for the political, business, professional and diplomatic elite and broader middle classes while serving as the meeting point of new ideas, culture and technology for the aspirationals and millennials. The newspaper is a public trust dedicated to the pursuit of truth and reason covering a range of issues from breaking news to politics, business, the markets, the arts, sports and community to the crossroads of people and society.

You can email us at: hello@thisdaylive.com or visit our contact us page.