The Nation Newspaper

Category: Industry

  • IMF team to hold talks on bailout

    IMF team to hold talks on bailout

    Discussions on an economic programme that will be supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail the country out of its economic challenges are to be held.

    A team from the IMF is expected to meet the government at the Peduase Lodge, where discussions are expected to open on the bailout negotiations.

    A source at the Presidency said the government was ready to negotiate with the IMF officials and expressed optimism about the outcome, although it declined to proffer details.

    The Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, Min Zhu, had earlier, in a statement, announced that the fund had received a formal request from the country to initiate discussions on an IMF support programme for Ghana.

    It said: “The fund stands ready to help address the economic challenges it is facing. An IMF team will be sent in early September to initiate discussions on a programme.”

    The government announced its decision to seek a bailout from the IMF to help restore stability in the economy, particularly in the areas of strengthening the local currency and reducing the fiscal deficit.

    This was greeted with mixed reactions by the public, including the Minority in Parliament, who blamed the current state of the economy on gross mismanagement.

    Industry stakeholders have expressed the belief that the IMF’s bailout would further burden people with economic hardships since stringent measures would have to be instituted to salvage the economy.

  • The cement war rages

    The cement war rages

    Some ‘powerful forces’ representing certain multinational interests are said to be set to frustrate plans for a higher cement grade by blackmailing the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON). Assistant Editor Chikodi Okereocha reports.

    The Director-General (DG) of  the Standards  Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Dr. Joseph Odumodu, is under intense pressure to soft pedal on the  upgrade of cement directive.

    Odumodu appears free from  importers and manufacturers of sub-standard products. Those on his neck are powerful forces opposed to the introduction of new guidelines and standards for cement.

    The SON to  sanitise the building and construction industry, formulated a policy to review the standard of cement, classified it into three grades and stipulated their uses.

    The policy, which was okayed by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, classified cement into  32.5, 42.5 and 52.5 grades. While restricting the use of the 32.5 grade to plastering of structures, the policy recommended that the 42.5 grade be used in construction of buildings, beams, load bearing columns, pillars, block moulding and other structures. The 52.5 grade is recommended for the construction of bigger projects, such as bridges, flyovers and high rise buildings.

    The guidlines pegged the product’s standard at NIS 444-1-2014, which is the new criterion for cement.

    SON also released 10 testing standards as national requirements for the product in the country.

    The review, according to SON, incorporated information on application of the various grades of cement as well as additional information and features on cement bags. The features/information include: colour code for proper identification according to strength and class. The coloured part of the bag with the labelling information should take one-third of the bag surface on both sides. While the location, or address of manufacturer, batch number and expiry date must be stated on the cement.

    The  guidelines and standards, however,  did not go down well with some importers and manufacturers, particularly those importing, or producing the 32.5 grade. They are insisting that it would not only lead to increase in the price of the product, but result in its scarcity.

    Some of them argued that it would be difficult for some manufacturers to respond to the new requirement in the production lines.Those advancing this position include Lafarge WAPCO, United Cement Company of Nigeria (UNICEM) and Ashaka Cement. To them, restricting the use of 32.5 grade to plastering  amounts to its ban.

    However, it is not their hard line position against the policy that is giving observers serious cause for concern; rather, it is the way they are campaigning to force SON to submission.

    Although the so-called powerful forces, allegedly representing certain multinational interests, have dragged SON to court over the issue, there are fears that the same forces may have included blackmail and intimidation to their list of strategies to cow the agency. Added to this is feeling that they may have enlisted the support of unions and organisations outside the industry to advance their course.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), for instance, may have been sold the dummy that the new guideline on cement would lead to job losses as they have joined the fray.

    In a statement, its President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said the review “portends danger to the fragile economy”.

    He said: “The government should avoid manipulations that would eventually harm our collective aspirations for society that benefits the populace and not individual interests.

    “The combination of the West Africa Portland Cement, UNICEM, Sokoto Cement, Ashaka Cement, Purechem and others that are presently surviving the hardship unleashed on the productive manufacturing sector in Nigeria, have thousands of people in their employ, which is scandalously too inadequate for an industry that is key to infrastructural development in a country with a population above 160 million.”

    The NLC accused SON of carrying out “orchestrated campaigns that incidents of building collapse in different parts of the country occur simply because the quality of cement currently in use in the country is not the 42, 5 type.”

     SON has, however, responded that it would not join issues with the Labour. The agency, however, said it had become pertinent to state that unseen hands had erroneously convinced the Labour over the implications of the  guidelines and standard grades for cement.

    To SON, the involvement of labour was part of the plot to vilify and discredit the agency. The organisation believes that as a government agency, it must not shirk its responsibility or seen to be intimidated or cowed by anybody.

    “Why should companies and firms dictate to a government agency how it should be regulated? It has never happened in other climes,” a policy analyst argued.

    According to the expert, who declined to be mentioned, what is curious is the fact that SON, in its determination to ensure that it carried all stakeholders along, decided to give the manufacturers enough grace period before monitoring and enforcing the new regime.

    The agency, he said, as part of its statutory work, invited all cement manufacturers in Nigeria to a stakeholders’ consultative meeting in Lagos. At the meeting, it was resolved that in line with the implementation of the new standard NIS 444-1: 2014, new guidelines are to be followed.

    The guidelines include: a 60-day frame for cement manufacturing firms to inscribe manufacturing and expiry dates on cement bags; best before use dates as well as batch numbers on their products.

    All adverts by cement producers, SON directed, must be cleared with the agency before they could be run. Also, all claims in adverts on the integrity of products and conformity requirements are to be cross-checked by the agency before they are aired or printed.

    Besides, storage facilities of cement firms must meet the stipulated standards required for the product (dry cold).

    Sources close to the meeting told The Nation that representatives include Dangote Cement, Lafarge WAPCO, Unicem, Ashaka cement, Ibeto, Sokoto and Pukemcem. They promised to support SON to ensure that the guidelines are adhered to.

    The General Manager, Operations, Lafarge, Larry Opakunle, observed that more time was needed for Lafarge to install the new technology.

    At the meeting, Odumodu explained why SON opted for the guidelines for cement. According to him, the regime is necessitated by the need to ensure public safety and best practices.

    According to him, SON came up with the policy because of the safety of consumers most of who have had to bear the brunt of the rising cases of collapsed structures in the country. The new guidelines, he said, would allow end-users make the right choice, help to avoid unethical application of the different types of cement; enhance proper identification of the different cement classes for traceability as well as to guide the users.

    “I have a responsibility to ensure public safety. We need to ensure that ethical standards are applied in products usage; we also need to act in the best interest of the country, because people have died, people are still dying due to the problem of building collapse. We must, therefore, take corrective and preventive measures,” he said.

    Odumodu made the clarification that the agency has not banned the production of 32.5 grade of cement, saying it has only limited its use to plastering of structures. He said cement firms, including Lafarge WAPCO only needed to increase their production capacity of the 32.5 grade to rse market output and retain staff.

    He allayed the fear of possible loss of jobs due to the new standards, describing it as unfounded and misguided. He also dismissed the recent claim by Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) that it did not have a component laboratory for determining cement quality.

    SON, according to Odumodu, has put measures in place including a task force to effectively ensure compliance when the new cement regime kicks off.

    It would recalled that as part of efforts at eliminating the menace of building collapse, the agency embarked on the standardisation of the basic inputs in building and construction such as iron and steel, roofing materials. Having enforced standardisation in other building inputs, the agency set out to review cement standard by adopting a holistic approach to ensure that standards are maintained in all spheres of the building process.

    SON’s technical committee  consulted widely with stakeholders from all sectors including COREN; Universities; Research Institutes; builders; consumer associations; Block Molders Association of Nigeria and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), among others, who participated in the activities leading to the review of the cement standards.

    All the stakeholders agreed to streamlining cement types, with 42.5 grade for general purposes, while 32.5 will be restricted to plastering. The House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Public Investigative Hearing on the Composition and Pigmentation of Cement (Cement Quality) in Nigeria, headed by Hon. Yakubu Dogara, recommended that only 42.5 grade should be produced to tackle  building collapse. The House subsequently asked SON to enforce the measure.

  • Training for shea nut stakeholders, others begins

    Training for shea nut stakeholders, others begins

    •$2.1b lost to smugglers

    Training for stakeholders involved in the production, processing, packaging, marketing and export of shea nut has begun.

    The programme was inaugurated by the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment,Dr. Samuel Ortom, in collaboration with the National Shea Products Association of Nigeria (NASPPAN) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development at the ministry’s headquarters in Abuja.

    Ortom said: “The Federal Government has realised their coming together as stakeholders in the Shea Nut industry will, no doubt impact positively on the output in the shea nut industry, enhance job and wealth creation, improve employment generation, and act as means of fighting poverty and also enhancing the diversification of the nation’s foreign exchange inflow.

    “This is in line with Mr. President’s transformation agenda in the country. Likewise, it is the mandate of this Ministry therefore, to create policies that will positively drive quality certification of the nation’s agricultural commodities prior to processing and export.”

    Ortom stated that Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO’s) findings indicated that Nigeria’s Shea trees produced 57 per cent of the shea nuts across the shea belt in Africa.

    “It is, however, unfortunate to inform you that Nigeria hardly process five per cent of its shea nuts to butter neither do we pick nor export up to 20 per cent of the entire Shea Nuts produced annually in the country. The remaining 80 per cent is left to rot away un-utilised. The output of the shea industry in Nigeria has the potentials of being equal with other agricultural commodities like cocoa, sesame seeds, soya and a host of others.”

    In his contribution, the representative of the Minister of State for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr. Charles Ezinma (Shea Desk Officer) said that Nigeria has lost $2.1 billion to activities of smugglers from expected $3.8 billion per annum from foreign exchange, adding that his ministry is addressing the issues of long gestation of the crop, poor storage facilities and smuggling.

    Earlier, the Acting President, NASPAN, Mrs. Nelly Osagie Ndaguba urged the Federal Government to encourage the regeneration of Shea Tree Woodland Park across the Shea belt, improve quality control assessment for shea nut and shea butter, quality and provision of modern laboratory as well as provision of ware houses.

  • ‘Access to finance major challenge facing MSMEs’

    ‘Access to finance major challenge facing MSMEs’

    What is the major headache of small business?

    Access to finance, according to the head of Department, Business School, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, Prof Silvanus Ikhide.

    He listed other obsstacles faced by Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) to include access to power and poor infrastructure.

    Ikehide spoke in Abuja at a conference organised by the group.

    He said other problems included high administrative cost, vague information and lack of collateral to access loans.

    “Our sources of finance, in most cases, are equity and debt; with equity accounting for a greater part of what we have.Micro enterprises depend on micro credit for financing, but researches done have not indicated that micro credit promotes investment,’’ he said.

    Ikhide said micro enterprises in many countries accounted for about 95 per cent of the entire economic activities in the informal sector.He said small enterprises had the potential for expansion in Nigeria, but were limited by their small sizes and poor access to finance.

    “SMEs are very important in job creation in many countries and they have come to about 50 per cent of total employments in these countries. SME finance is a big problem in Nigeria because the sector is small. It accounts for less than 50 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) compared to what we have in other countries.

    “We believe that a robust SME sector in Nigeria will address the issue of unemployment. This is because we have seen this result in other countries. We believe that if you have a high degree of unemployment of about 70.5 per cent in a country, policy must be focused on SME’s to deal with this issue.

    “Also, the cumbersome application procedure and high interest rate of borrowing in Nigeria should be checked to enable small business owners access funds easily,’’ Ikhide said, adding that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should balance its role as a regulator, supervisor, guarantor promoter and overseer in assisting small businesses.

    Ikhide also said that micro enterprises were constrained due to lack of information, adding that this could be dealt with by leveraging existing relations.

    Also, the President, Anabel Group Inc., Mr. Nicholas Okoye, said crime, terrorism, lack of education, poor healthcare facilities and unemployment were major challenges that Nigerians face.

    “We need to give young people jobs. We need to do whatever it takes to get young people jobs. If you give people jobs, terrorism, violence, and crimes will become a thing of the past. Job creation is a critical part of economic development,” he said.

  • Post-2015 agenda will address MDGs’ unfinished goals, says Fed Govt

    Post-2015 agenda will address MDGs’ unfinished goals, says Fed Govt

    Post-2015 development agenda will tackle unfinished Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) framework, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Dr Precious Gbeneol, has said.

    At a Presidential Summit titled: “The MDGs and the Socio-Economic Transformation of Nigeria: 2015 and Beyond,” he said the new set of goals would handle issues not addressed under the current framework, such as poverty reduction, access to sustainable energy, infrastructure, among others.

    “This summit is to ensure that the new agenda is complete with strategies to sustain the momentum in the final push to achieve the MDGs in the areas where Nigeria lags behind.Nigeria will forward the outcome of the summit to United Nations (UN) and other partners; this summit will enable us deliberate on appropriate indicators to be embedded in the new framework,” she said

    Gbneol said poverty eradication remained a global challenge, adding that it was an indispensable requirement for sustainable development. According to her, to achieve sustainable development, there is the need to promote inclusive and equitable economic, social and environmental equity and prudent natural resource management.

    “The formulation of post-2015 development agenda should be based on these principles in an inclusive process that lends voice to the yearnings of all and particularly, disadvantaged groups,’’ she said, adding that the new goals would integrate the social, economic and environmental imperatives of sustaining development.

    “As the scale of resources needed to finance the post-2015 development agenda was daunting, it is imperative to institute the right funding mechanism. This summit provides the opportunity to brainstorm on financing options to appropriate recommendations”, she said, assuring that the summit would help to accelerate progress on the attainment of the MDGs.

    The UN Resident Coordinator, Mr. Daouda Toure, said progress had been registered in sectors such as education and health. He said school enrollment had increased by more than 300 per cent in Nigeria, adding that access to primary healthcare has increased with investments in health infrastructure and systems.

    He said the post-2015 presented opportunities to fulfill responsibilities of addressing new development challenges. He said the UN and its partners would continue to work with the Federal Government towards meeting the new global development agenda.

    President, Pan African Parliament, Mr. Bethel Amadi, said the MDGs did not place significant emphasis on reaching the poorest and the most excluded segments of the society.  He also said the MDGs did not incorporate the cumulative impact of conflict and violence in Africa, adding that they have negatively affected its development.

  • The ceramics goldmine

    The global ceramics market is projected to hit $408 billion by 2018. Instead of tapping into this lucrative market, Nigeria is still importing over $600 million worth of ceramics products yearly. Experts blame this on the dearth of skilled manpower and industries to process ceramics raw materials to finished products. Okwy Iroegbu-Chikezie reports.

    BY the 1970s and 80s, the industrial sector was booming. With abundant raw materials in virtually all the sectors, coupled with the availability of human resources, the fortunes of operators rose. During the period, several ceramics manufacturing concerns sprang up, riding on the back of the nation’s abundant solid mineral resources particularly ceramic raw materials such as alumina, carbon, clay, feldspar, kaolin, quartz, silicon, and zirconium to produce ceramics. The raw materials are found in the six geo-political zones.

    Some of the ceramics manufacturing concerns that dotted the landscape then were Modern Ceramics Industry Umuahia; Nigerian-Italian Ceramic Product Industries, Ifon, Ondo State; Ceramic Manufacturers Limited, Kano; Eleganza Ceramics Industries and Richware Ceramics (both in Lagos). The activities of these firms once held the collective hope and aspirations of Nigerians that the nation’s age-long over-dependence on revenue from the oil & gas industry would soon be a thing of the past. The thinking was that the operations of these once vibrant ceramic companies constituted a strategic effort at diversifying the economy.

    But that has not been the case. Instead, most of them have since shut down, dashing the hopes of Nigerians of a possible shift away from the nation’s over-dependence on proceeds from oil. Several local companies, which delved into the industry in the past were snuffed out by unfavourable manufacturing climate due to policy somersaults, smuggling, and influx of sub-standard products, among others. Because of the high mortality rate of these companies, most of the ceramics needs of the country are met by imports from Asia and Europe.

    Nigeria currently imports over $600 million worth of ceramics products annually, occupying Ninth position among world’s ceramics consumers, according to a Professor of Ceramics Engineering, Patrick Eguakhide Oaikhinan.

    Prof. Oaikhinan, who is also Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Epina Technologies Limited, a consultancy outfit, also said Nigeria remains the only country among the emerging economies without export. This means that Nigeria is yet to tap into the lucrative global ceramics market projected to reach $408 billion by 2018, according to the renowned Professor.

    The Prof, who spoke at an event in Lagos to announce preparations for the forthcoming ‘First International Ceramics Trade Fair’ in Nigeria organised by his company, expressed regrets that Nigeria has no appropriate strategy in place yet for the development of ceramics industry that could create over 1.2 million direct and indirect jobs. “There is need to bring together a network of partners from across the world to set a new paradigm for the development of the ceramics industry in Nigeria,” he stated, noting that “it is expected that the fair would provide a launch pad for networking, collaboration, and discussion on the advancement of ceramics products.”

    The need for such networking and collaboration, he said, had become necessary in view of the fact that ceramics could be deployed in various applications such as aviation, automotive, construction, electronics, household, and medical sectors; components and assemblies for industries as diverse as chemical, petrochemical, beverage, power distribution, mining, and textiles, among others.

    To drive home his point, Prof. Oaikhinan listed some specific uses for advanced ceramics to include gas turbine airfoils, rotors, combustors, and exhaust; electronics/optical laser positioning mirrors and packaging, and amour. Others are furnace radiant heaters and fans; hot gas filtration; fuel cell membranes; metal casting immersion heaters, among others.

    Because of these diverse uses of ceramics, the Director General, Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Mr. John Isemede, said Nigeria has to look inwards and develop the raw materials that are abundant in the country rather than depend solely on import. “What people are going to the Far East to import, we have here in Nigeria. Why we are having problems in Nigeria is because the private sector is not working with the universities. The government is also not doing same. With all the research centres in the country, it is a pity that we do not have a functional ceramic sector in spite of the fact that we have all the raw materials needed to set up such,” he said.

    Similarly, the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr. Muda Yusuf, said that the fact that oil prices are crashing, signalling the beginning of trouble for Nigeria, means that there is need to create an enabling environment in the form of infrastructure and quality of institutions and policies to develop the solid mineral sector of the economy. While expressing regrets over the nation’s dependence on oil and gas, he warned that the consequences would be dire if anything goes wrong in the world oil market.

    Apart from lack of government patronage and robust policy to support the development of the solid mineral sector, experts say that lack of requisite skill and man-power as well as industries to process raw materials for the production of ceramic products are responsible for the comatose state of the sector. “There is lack of significant number of professionals with appropriate skills and expertise in the ceramics manufacturing business in Nigeria. “The gap in skills is a big blow to the captive industry. Our local ceramics manufacturing businesses are struggling to process their own raw materials. This is because they mostly lack knowledge of the chemical and mineralogical compositions, physical and mechanical properties of these raw materials,” Professor Oaikhinan told The Nation in an interview.

    He said, for instance, that there is no higher institution in Nigeria that offers training in ceramics science and engineering despite its strategic importance in the actualisation of the administration’s transformation agenda. Despite the industry’s capacity to create over 1.2  million direct and indirect jobs, Nigeria is yet to borrow a leaf from a country like India where about 5.5 million of its people are directly and indirectly employed by the tile industry, which is a sub-industry of ceramics, according to managing director, German Engineering Federation, India, Rajesh Nath.

    Oaikhinan threw more light on the capacity of the ceramics sub-sector to generate employment. He said: “We have various departments that can create these jobs. There is the raw materials unit, as well as the processing unit across the industry. We have the body forming unit, the drying and firing unit, the glazing unit, inspection and packaging unit and laboratory and quality control unit. The glazing unit is an industry on its own. Assuming that we have 40 sanitary wares manufacturers which can engage 500 Nigerians directly, in total, 20,000 people would have been engaged. In ceramics we have over 15 strong areas such as floor and roof tiles, table wares, pipes, technical ceramics, porcelain, among others, that can engage 500,000 Nigerians.’’

    He also pointed out that the industry’s capacity to churn out  indirect jobs is quite huge. “People will work as distributors, marketers, carpenters, bricklayers, interior decorators, among others. The research we have carried out shows this can create over 1.2 million  jobs comprising of over 51 per cent of female,’’  Oaikhinan said, adding that he has approached the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) to discuss the possibility of establishing departments of ceramics in the universities and polytechnics, but is yet to get a favourable response from them.

    While berating government on the auto policy, he noted that the nation cannot possibly have a viable auto industry without functional ceramic industries. According to him, 50 per cent of car parts and accessories are made from ceramics. The sector, he also said, holds the key to moving the energy sector forward in the nation’s quest to improve electricity supply. He said most of the parts needed by the electricity distribution and generation companies (DISCO’s and GENCO’s) are made from ceramics.

    Would the numerous benefits and applications of ceramics in various sectors galvanise government and members of the private sector to collaborate and revive the once vibrant sub-sector? The raw materials are in abundance. The human resources are also in large supply. What is probably in short supply is the political will on the part of government to initiate policies to encourage local and foreign operators in the sub-sector. This is so considering the fact thatthe sudden disappearance of ceramics manufacturing outfits from the industrial landscape poses serious threats to the realisation of Federal Government’s industrial revolution plan.

  • Group decries blackmail over new cement standard

    The Coalition Against Building Collapse (CABCO) has condemned what it calls increasing blackmail in the opposition to the new cement standard, which aims at minimizing the incidence of building collapse and moving the cement industry forward in line with global trends.

    In a statement issued after their meeting in Lagos to discuss the ongoing cement controversy, the group’s secretary-general Clement Orimade expressed shock that instead of complying with the new guidelines that will save lives and property, some stakeholders have resorted to blackmailing the House of Representatives and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), thereby deceiving the larger Nigerian public.

    “We have noted with dismay a well-orchestrated campaign of blackmail, misinformation and threat being visited on SON with the aim of forcing a policy reversal that will prolong Nigeria’s losses to building collapse. When they get tired of blackmailing SON, they turn to the

    House of Representatives which have voted in favour of enforcement of the new cement standard.

    The coalition maintained its earlier stand that cement contributes to building collapse, a position which the chairman of Ashaka Cement Plc aligned with in his interview with The Sunday Punch of August 3, 2014.

    The group further stated that the cement labeling and traceability requirements which are part  of the new cement standard are long overdue, adding that cement manufacturers have cheated consumers for too long through non-disclosure of important facts  of their products.

    “Manufacturers who are kicking against the inclusion of cement grade, batch number and expiry date on the labeling want to perpetuate the cheating into a new era where the versatile 42.5 has become the mandatory all-purpose cement grade in Nigeria. They should count themselves lucky that consumers haven’t sued them for failing to give full disclosure of the facts of the cement they sell”.

    The Coalition also dismissed the claim that it will take manufacturers of 32.5 two years to change their production line to 42.5, calling it another falsehood being spread in a callous effort to keep Nigerians buying the lower grade and suffering the consequences rather than going for a more reliable grade cement .

    “The technical experts in our Coalition have investigated the issue and found that, contrary to what opponents of the new cement standard are saying, conversion of a 32.5 production line to a 42.5 production line requires neither new buildings nor new manufacturing equipment but adjustment of the combination and preparation of ingredients”,  the statement continued.

  • Nigeria posts N2.42trn trade surplus in Q1, says NBS

    The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has confirmed that Nigeria recorded a trade surplus of N2.42 trillion in the first quarter of the year as exports rose 14.2 per cent to N3.96 trillion compared with the previous quarter.

    The latest Foreign Trade Statistics report just released showed that the value of imports within the same period dropped by 8.3 per cent to N1.54 billion.

    The report also showed that mineral products still accounted for N3.59trn or 90.7 per cent of the total export value in the first quarter of the year.

    The total value of Nigeria’s merchandise trade in the period stood at N5.51 trillion, representing a 6.8 per cent increase from the value of N5.16 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter (Q4, 2013).

    A classification of the exports by sectors indicated that crude oil component continued to dominate export trade, contributing 81.5 per cent of total export trade value, with both crude and non-crude components remaining as key drivers of growth.

    The NBS reported that the crude oil component of export trade grew by 8.4 per cent from the preceding quarter, and contributed up to 51.1 per cent of the total growth in exports, whereas the non-crude component of trade grew by 48.6 per cent, accounting for 48.9 per cent of the total export growth from the previous quarter lower than the value of in the preceding quarter.

    Other significant categories of the export trade structure showed that boilers, machinery and chemical appliances, valued at N92.2 billion or 2.3 per cent of the total, and vehicles, aircraft and associated parts valued at N89.6billion, also 2.3 per cent of the total.

    By individual product, natural liquefied gas held the second highest exports value, with N330bn or 8.3 per cent of the total during the period under review.

    On the import side, the structure showed that imports trade was dominated by boilers, machinery and appliances, which accounted for 23.7 per cent.

    Items that contributed notably to the value of import trade in the quarter were mineral products, which accounted for 16 per cent, vehicles, aircraft and associated parts, 13 per cent, base metals and articles of base metals, 9.5 per cent and products of the chemical and allied industries, 8.5 per cent.

    The NBS stated: “Import trade classified by Broad Economic Category revealed that industrial supplies not elsewhere classified had the greatest value with N435.3 billionn or 28.2 per cent of total imports.

  • N300b required for manpower training annually, says ITF

    About N300 billion is required annually for the training of  two million people on various skills in the country, the Director-General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Dr Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko has said. Chukkas-Onaeko, who made this known at the 5th ITF Trainers’ Forum held in Abuja recently, said the agency had the capacity to train over two million Nigerians annually on various skills to boost the national industrial revolution plan of the Federal Government.

    At the forum themed ‘The Place of Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the Actualisation of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP),’she identified fund as the agency’s major set back and appealed to its partners and other stakeholders to support the good course, which had the capacity to industrialise the country.

    The Director-General said the train the trainers conference was not only apt but timely, given the current thrust of the present management to pursue a 4-point training agenda. She said the agenda were training of two million Nigerians annually, the full automation of ITF business processes, ensuring 100 per cent payment of training contributions, and ensuring 100 per cent implementation of SIWES.

    “We are all aware of the unemployment situation in the country. We are equally aware of Mr. President’s commitment to transform the national economy through accelerated industrialisation using the National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) and the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) as vehicles.

    “It is our mandate to supply the manpower requirement of the NIRP and NEDEP in collaboration with other agencies of government like Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) and others,’’ she said.

    According to her, the Bank of Industry (BoI) is a vital partner, which ITF can leverage on its financial muzzle to achieve some of the set goals. “Our desire to entrench this collaboration however, gave rise to the introduction of the National Skills Development Programme (NISDP).

    Through the NISDP, we have trained 37,000 Nigerians from the 36 states of the federation and FCT, which is however, far low if the manpower requirements of the NIRP are to be met. I believe that this forum will, like others in the past, generate the ideas and innovations that will lead to the achievement of all we have set out to do,” she said.

    Earlier, Mr John Enyi, Director of Training, said the forum was not an annual ritual, but equipped to proffer solutions to the country’s manpower deficit. The forum attracted hundreds of senior officials of ITF, stakeholders and trainers from across the country.

  • SON goes tough on makers of sub-standard products

    The Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), in line with its “Zero Tolerance to Substandard Products”, has seized  goods worth over N8.5 million in  EkitiState. The substandard products include electric cables, tyres, expired supermarket products, such as breakfast cereals, snacks, detergents, soaps, margarine and vegetable oil. These were also substandard LPG Cylinders. The market value of the products is conservatively put at N8.5million.

    A statement by the State Head of the organisation in Ekiti State,  Mr. RilwanAdebola Fashina, said the products destroyed fall within the category referred to as “Life Danger Products.”  On how they isolated the destroyed products, Fashina said the electric cables failed critical parameters in the Nigeria Industrial Standard (NIS), such as conductor resistance, elongation, tensile strength and diameter of insulation, as well as not having country of origin embossed on them for traceability.

    On the tyres, he said they were discovered to be all-used and mostly expired. The supermarket products expired well before the dates of the agency’s market survey between January and February and were still kept on the shelves for sale to unsuspecting consumers. Some were wrongly labelled with no country of origin, while others like vegetable oil were already leaking on the supermarket shelves. He said the LPG Cylinders were not carrying embossment of brand name, address of manufacturer and country of origin for traceability.

    The destruction exercise, he said, was a culmination of a rigorous process to ascertain the quality of each product. He said the sole objective was to improve lives through standards by protecting  consumers against the hazards associated with the distribution, purchase and use of substandard products, including loss of lives and properties as well as economic sabotage, among others.

    Fashina said: “We all at different times have lamented issues of building collapses due partly to poor quality of materials, wrong application and outright mischief by some property developers; fire outbreaks in houses and markets due to poor quality electric cables. Many road accidents due to poor quality tyres; deaths occasioned by food poisoning and such other sad incidents many of which are traceable to the marketing, sales and use of substandard and life danger products in our country.”

    Mr. Fashina said the destruction exercise was carried out in accordance with the procedure established by SON, which commenced with a market survey of the products in question. Others are the inventory and keeping on hold suspected products while sampling for laboratory tests and analysis to ascertain their conformity with the specifications/requirements of the relevant NIS and seizure/evacuation where the products are confirmed to be substandard.

    He urged members of the public to ensure that they have knowledge of products they intend to purchase for use/sale and seek guidance. He said: “We should endeavour to check manufacturing and expiry dates of products before we buy them. All products have life span and we must endeavour to know this even if they are new. Tyres for example, have the week and year of manufacture embossed on the side and have a life span of  four years even if unused.”

    Fashina urged the public to know that there is no standard for used item thus patronage of already used items (Tokunbo) is at the buyers risk. “It is important we purchase products from established outlets, request for receipts and keep them in case we have issues with the products and need to seek redress.  SON have Consumer Feedback Desks in all its offices nationwide where the public can lodge complaints for redress. To do this, you need to provide the receipt of purchase and make your complaint, addressed to the Director General or the Head of the SON office in your state in writing,” he advised.

    He also advised manufactures, importers and dealers to always confirm if the products have been tested before by requesting evidence of test certificates. Others are to check and confirm rated voltages, current, power etc of electrical products e.g. generators, AVR, sockets, check date of manufacture and expiry, best before dates and country of origin.

    He also advised that people should check that labelling and manuals are written in English Language, check whether a particular product has guarantee/warranty, claims of the manufacturer on performance of the product, and also be armed with the relevant product standards before purchasing or importing.

    The SON chief also encouraged local manufacturers to subscribe to SON’s Mandatory Conformity Assessment Programme (MANCAP) to ensure that their products are certified to the minimum requirements of the relevant standard, are safe for use and give value for money to consumers.