The Nation Newspaper

Tag: manufacturer

  • Indigenous Braille manufacturer gets honour

    Indigenous Braille manufacturer gets honour

    Participants at this year’s Arise Women’s conference  were full of gratitude to   Mrs. Jean Obi, the Steering Committee/Coordinator of the Braille Book Centre. The centre was set up in 1995 with two main aims: to produce Braille books for visually-impaired students; and to provide computer training to prepare visually-impaired applicants for gainful employment.

    The convener of the conference, Pastor Siju Iluyomade, said its theme, ‘Branded for Christ’, was appropriate in time and season for spiritually-discerning women. “And with the slogan- ‘Thermostat controls the temperature’ has shown that spiritually filled women can bring positive changes to the world’’.

    Pastor Iluyomade said: “Mrs. Obi is a thermostat who has controlled her environment positively by ensuring that visually- impaired students and applicants are provided with computer training for gainful employment across the length and breadth of the country. She deserves to be appreciated for her work with the blind students, helping them to maximise their potentials.”

    Mrs. Obi is British by birth. In 1962, she moved to Lagos and joined the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) where she taught herself Braille. In 1988, she and Danlami Basharu (Director of the Anglo-Nigerian Welfare Association for the Blind- ANWAB) participated in an international forum in London to find ways of promoting the use of Braille. They came back determined to set up a national Braille authority in Nigeria and in 1991 jointly initiated the National Braille Council of Nigeria (Nabracon) of which Mrs. Obi is the current President and represents Nigeria on the executive committee of the International Council on English Braille (ICEB).

    In the 1990s, the national body of Nigerwives (a non governmental organisation) accepted a proposal to set up the Nigerwives Braille Book Production Centre – which pioneered the computer production of Brailled textbooks in Nigeria. In 1996, Danlami Basharu  requested Mrs. Obi to help him set up a similar organisation – which is now ANWAB. She serves on ANWAB’s Management Committee and was Chair from 1996 to 2007.

    In 1997, she was awarded the Ulverscroft International Prize for initiative in providing educational services for the visually impaired, and in 1998, she was awarded an MBE in the UK.

  • Manufacturer tasks companies on quality assurance

    The Managing Director of N.N.Fems Industries Limited, Mr Emmanuel Nwakanma has impressed on manufacturers the need to raise the bar in the area of quality assurance in order to engender trust in made-in-Nigeria goods.

    According to Nwakanma, whose company produces of Apple and Ozone range of cosmetics and other related products, companies should raise the bar and never short circuit the production of top range products as inability to sustain qualitative product have overbearing negative effects on the consumers.

    “Developing a culture of quality has positive effects on the organization and this explains why we need to have absolute focus on quality products.”

    The economic recession according to him, provides a vantage avenue for manufacturing industries to engage in innovative and creative channels to make their products appealing and meeting the needs of the target audience.

    He asserted that quality production increases the performance level and improves its service delivery which ultimately benefits the target audience.

    He enjoined companies to develop a quality assurance policy that not only distinguishes the organisations but also enhancing superior value delivery to the consumers. The key elements of a quality assurance are customer focus which focuses on the specific needs of the consumers as well as determining appropriate parameters to meet such needs. It is also very important for everyone in the organisation to be thoroughly immersed in the quality policy of the organisation.

  • Manufacturer of groans over high cost of production

    A manufacturer of locally fabricated freezers in Osun State, Prince Adelusi Balogun has expressed worry that the way prices of raw materials for the production of the machines have skyrocketed and that the high cost of the production has adverse effect on the business.

    Balogun who is the Chief Executive Officer of Balocool Excel Nigeria Limited in Osogbo explained that the prices of the materials he was using to fabricate the machines have multiplied and adversely affected the profit margin.

    The locals in ice block business in Osun State rely on Balogun’s locally fabricated freezers because of its durability. Also, those selling beverages in the state are using Balogun’s locally fabricated freezers to ice their drinks.

    According to him: “I invented the locally fabricated machine for making ice block when I realised that people in Osun State were traveling to Ibadan in Oyo State to buy ice block to make their beverages chilled. .

    “As a fridge mechanic, I felt that I could make a machine that would be producing ice block and meet the demand for ice block in Osun.”

    While stating that locally fabricated freezers are on display at the ongoing trade fair in Abuja and that he has plans to produce more but the high cost of the raw materials for production is making it difficult for him to produce at the moment.

  • Manufacturers’ woes worsen as insurgency intensifies

    Manufacturers’ woes worsen as insurgency intensifies

    The specter of Boko Haram is haunting the manufacturing industry. From billions of dollars in financial losses by manufacturers to monumental  decline in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), loss of jobs and social dislocation, the upsurge in the bombing campaign of the militant Islamist group has left manufacturers, and by extension, the economy, gasping for breath. Assist Editor CHIKODI OKEREOCHA reports that unless President Muhammadu Buhari  makes good his promise to contain the group, more manufacturers, especially those in the Northeast, may become extinct.

    It would probably go down as the most challenging period in it’s over 50 year’s operation in Nigeria. Between November last year and April this year, a period of six months,Lafarge Africa incurred financial losses to the tune of N2.5 billion as a result of the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast. The company, which recently merged with Switzerland–based Holcimto create the most advanced building materials group, incured the heavy losses because it could not meet its sales projections due to the insecurity in the region..

    Although, normalcy has since returned to the company’s operations, according to itsGroup Managing Director/CEO, Guillaume Roux, the N2.5 billion financial losses is not the company’s only worry.

    Lafarge Africa  is also worried about the threat Boko Haram poses on it’s over $100 billion business expansion drive, particularly in the northern region.

    Roux said: “Today we have up to 8.5 million tonnes in the country and we want to double that capacity in the next five years. We are expanding in Calabar and we want to expand in the north. So this project of $100 billion expansion in the north is key because there’s a market; its key because there’s growth and it’s been an essential project for us.”

    Roux, who spoke in Abuja shortly after a meeting with the Presidential Initiative on the North East (PINE) held to finalise discussions on the role the cement company will play in the long term economic development of the Northeast, said supporting the security, recovery and stability of the region had become critical to the future of its over $100 billion business expansion drive in the region.

    According to him, the assets and plants the company has in the north are very strong and competitive. “We want to make sure the right conditions are there. Security is essential-without security obviously we cannot invest. The economic development is essential, so we need to help,” he said.

    Roux further said the company had demonstrated its commitment to business expansion in the region through the ground breaking of an expansion project that was meant to grow Ashakacem capacity from the current one million metric tonnes to four million metric tonnes.

    His words: “Lafarge is a long term investor and this necessitates uninterrupted operations despite the insurgency that we have witnessed in recent times. Of course, we see security as a key ingredient for our continued oper ations and this is why we are a willing ally with PINE in restoring normalcy and rebuilding the region.”

    Incidentally, Lafarge Africa is only an addition to the long list of manufacturing firms in Nigeria desperately craving uninterrupted operations and is ready to give an arm literarily for the restoration of normalcy in the devastated region.Boko Haram’s insurgency is also taking a huge toll on Spectra Industries Limited, makers of Suco beverages.

    Its Managing Director, Mr. Duro Kuteyi, told The Nation that because his company’s distributors are in the Northeast and Northcentral – the epicenter of the sect’s activities – the fortunes of his company have dwindled.

    Kuteyi who is also the National Vice Chairman of Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industrialists (NASSI), lamented: “Our core business is in the North, and our distributors complain of low sales as people are scared of visiting the markets or big malls; customers take their time to shop because of bomb scare.”

    Customers, he said, are skeptical about the safety of doing business or even doing their personal shopping, so the situation has affected his company’s profitability. “The security situation, especially the bombings and kidnappings are affecting our business,” he said, adding that as a result the distribution of locally manufactured goods has been hampered.

    For manufacturers, it does not only rain, it pours.The protracted armed insurrection in the country has ruined their businesses, and by extension, the national economy. Real sector operators especially manufacturers including members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) are agonising over the implications of the continuous erosion of investor’ confidence on the economy as a result of the sustained bombing campaigns of the militant group.

    President,  Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Alhaji Remi Bello, is one of those who are worried.

    Bello said at moment, itis extremely difficult to attract investors because the risk of long-term investments had become enormous. Hear him: “The tempo of economic activities in the North has declined; access to markets by companies in the south has reduced, resulting in loss of sales; while many enterprises have relocated.” While noting that security of lives and property is crucial to investment, he said investment growth is imperative for job creation, poverty reduction and social stability. Besides, persistent insecurity, he stated, impacts negatively on the economy, while declining private sector performance result in job losses, which in turn aggravate the state of insecurity.

    For real sector operators and indeed, government, the dry up of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) due to rising insurgency is a bitter pill to swallow. Since 2009 when the group emerged, FDI has been dropping sharply, sending shock waves down the spine of the authorities particularly since last year when declining price of oil in the international market caused serious fiscal upsets for Africa’s largest economy. For instance, the World Investment Report (WIR) 2013 says FDI flows into Nigeria dropped by 21 per cent in just one year — from $8.9 billion in 2011 to $7 billion in 2012. This translates to loss of $1.9 billion, a figure considered unacceptable for a country in dire need of shoring up its revenue.

    The drop in FDI, The Nation learnt, is not unconnected with the serious negative perception problem created for the country by the activities of the insurgents. The perception problem is said to be responsible for the dwindling fortunes of operators in the hospitality industry. Many branches of banks and insurance companies have also closed shop, even as sales representatives of many companies have fled the affected states in the north. Also, many company projects under construction in the North have either been abandoned or suspended. Many operators, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have also relocating to other states thus, putting more pressure on limited facilities in those states.

    Because many companies have relocated their employees to areas considered less volatile, while many Nigerians moved en-mass to states not impacted by the violence, a humanitarian crisis of unimaginable dimension has since set in. Many families resident in the South where fleeing victims of Boko Haram take refuge have had to contend with feeding more mouths than their income could carry. The unemployment rate in those states in the south also soared. The rush to escape from the northern part of the country that has been hard hit is already affecting the profitability of businesses in the region due to decrease of economic activities.

    A disturbing aspect of the humanitarian crisis now starring the country in the face as a result of the upsurge in the activities of the sect is the plight of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) Last year alone, about 16 million people, many of them children, were displaced, according to fugues from Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs.  Yet, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Dr. Jamila Shu’ara, at an event marking this year’s World Refugee Day in Abuja, this week, raised the alarm that the figure might triple this year if urgent steps were not taken to stop insurgency.

    With about 47,000 persons displaced daily, Shu’ara said: “The issue of refugees and displaced persons has become a major concern globally because of the negative effects on humanity.” She however, said her office was collaborating with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and other stakeholders to provide succour for refugees and IDPs.

    “We all have a moral obligation and responsibility to lend a helping hand to people who want to flee as a result of conflict. The government is firmly committed to these principles while also seeking lasting and durable solutions to the challenge,” the Federal Commissioner for Refugees in the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants and IDPs, Hadiza Kangiwa Sani, said, adding that because of the security challenge in the Northeast, hundreds of Nigerians now prefer to seek asylum in neighbouring countries.

    While calls for all hands to be on deck in seeking lasting solutions to the challenge of IDPs intensify, manufacturers, widely acknowledged as catalysts for economic growth and development, are also seeking relief. Recently, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), the apex manufacturing body in Nigeria, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to address all the issues agitating the minds of manufacturers especially the Boko Haram insurgency.

    Although, since his inauguration on May 29, Buhari had at various fora reiterated his administration’s commitment to halting the violent campaign of Boko Haram, the consensus of experts and operators in various sector is that government must work the talk to halt the most callous and violent radical Islamist groups in African history. This, they say has become necessary because the manufacturing sector in particular remains crucial to national development, given its potential for job creation, revenue generation, and contribution to national Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

  • BoI to build synergy with local meter manufacturer

    BoI to build synergy with local meter manufacturer

    A meter manufacturing company in Ogun State, MOMAS Electric Meters Manufacturing Company Ltd (MEMMCOL) has said it can manufacture all the metres needed by the electricity  distribution companies (DISCO’s) in the country.

    Its Chairman, Mr. Kola Balogun, spoke while conducting the Managing Director of Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa and his team round his factory on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State.

    Balogun, an engineer, also told The Nation that he set up the firm to manufacture digital prepaid electricity meters.

    He said the company has developed some world-class standard products to provide electricity metering solutions, using the latest technologies in design and production.

    Balogun, who noted that the company believes in the local content policy of the Federal Government, said Nigeria can no longer depend on other countries for its technological requirement, adding that it should develop and create value with appropriate policies to encourage indigenous firms.

    He said his firm has almost 100 per cent local content  in human  resources and materials, adding that he employs young Nigerians and equips them with requisite training locally and internationally. “We have invested a lot of resources in our people through training and retraining. Some of our engineers have been trained in India and in the United States (US) to ensure that they compete favourably with their counterparts anywhere in the world,” Balogun said.

    He said with tenacity of purpose and appropriate technology, including smart technology and ruggedness, the company has  produced integrated circuit and silicon conductors, noting that it was a bold step in the sector for an indigenous company because of its high technology value.

    Responding, BoI’s chief praised the company for its technology, noting that they are comparable to others around the globe. He urged that the nation’s industrial policy be skewed towards  companies such as MEMMCOL to turn the economy around.

    He said the company can meet local demand in the metering system for the energy and the telecoms sector.

    According to him, for a country with over 130 million telephone subscribers, the company and the public will be best for it. He said: “The technology solves two particular problems such as cash flow for the subscriber and for the telecommunication companies to have proper billing for their customers.”

    Olaoluwa advised the firm to explore opportunities in the sector and exploit its core competence. On the cost advantage of the metering system, he implored telecommunication companies to stop importing metres as the locally produced ones are more efficient and cheaper. He said the bank is looking in the area of off-grid solar energy solutions for the sector hence, a Nigerian entity at the forefront of technology transfer should be supported.

    The MEMMCOL chief executive said: “Other countries support their experts. Having a stable naira will give us advantage because we also source some of our materials abroad. Within the pricing index of the regulator we can compete with imported products. We have interactive meter that works with a phone such that with your phone you can calculate your load profile from your office or home. However, this, we acknowledge, requires a lot of campaign to educate the public because of the knowledge gap. The  phone interactive metre technology is smart and indigenous to us. Our client profile is growing by the day”

    He called on the government to  build a national payment gateway to encourage the DISCO’s key into the new technology  to discourage people  from  queuing to pay for electricity bills  and buying recharge cards from hawkers. The technology, he said, affords people the opportunity to do their businesses from the comfort of their homes.

    On support from the government, he said the company received five-year tax holiday from and financial support from BoI

    The BoI boss said as a development bank, the bank wants to key in into the government’s campaign of Light- up- Nigeria. This was the reason for supporting energy solutions in six locations of the country, he added.

    According to Olaoluwa, the support for MEMMCOL is to encourage it to grow to a level like its counterpart in the US, Solar  Energy,  which has grown into a multi-billion dollar company.

    He pledged that the bank would provide a portal to profile its quality customers with good output to interact with and patronise one another.

    He said if supported, the company could employ about 500 workers instead of the 100 has at the moment.

  • Paints manufacturer bemoans insurgency, high raw materials’cost

    Paints manufacturer bemoans insurgency, high raw materials’cost

    Rising cases of insurgency in the Northeast and and import duties are responsible for the low turnover recorded in the past by paints manufacturer Chemstar Industry Nigeria Limited, its Group Managing Director (GMD), Mr. Aderemi Emmanuel Awode, has said.

    Speaking at the company’s Customers Forum in Lagos, the GMD flayed the rising insurgency in some parts of the country, saying such is not healthy for a business growth. “Because of rising insurgence in the north, our turnover has plummeted especially in the previous year from what it used to be,” he said.

    While expressing optimism for a quick end to the Boko Haram insurgence for business to thrive,the GMD said about 65 per cent of the company’s turnover is from the entire northern states, including Abuja.

    Awode further hinted that the manufacturing sector was facing difficult times due to the challenge of the slide in the naira exchange, and the sharp drop in the price of crude oil. He said most of the raw materials used in the paint industry were imported.

    “About 70 per cent of our raw materials are imported, while payment for the raw materials is done in dollars, while the import duties or tariffs are on the high side. These and other challenges are confronting the growth of paints industry,” he lamented.

    He noted that though the challenges of the paints industry and manufacturing sector in general were tough, God had been benevolent to the company in the last 20 years of its operations.

    The GMD, who put the company’s capacity utilisation at between 60 and 65 per cent, while the market share is about 20 per cent, said if considered with the over 1,000 paints industries in the country, and the competitiveness of the industry, the 20 per cent market share was good.

    Awode, who said the past 20 years had been challenging, yet rewarding, attributed the achievements of the company to the passion for paints business, commitment of the distributors, support of the customers and dedication of the workers.

    “Today, we are celebrating our 20 years of successful business growth and quality products and services. We owe this to the Almighty God, as well as our dedicated staff, loyal distributors and support from customers,” he said.

    Awode said the company, which began operations in a room in 1996 with three workers and two distributors, has over 2,000 distributors spread across the country and over 1,000 work force, as well as factories in Johannesburg in South Africa; Accra in Ghana and Turkey.

    The paints industry, which kicked off its 20th anniversary this year with the yearly Staff Week, and the fourth National Sales Conference as well as the Customers’ Forum, according to Awode, has its distribution network and distributors in all cities and towns of the country.

    Describing this year’s customers’ forum as special, as it coincided with the anniversary, the GMD said Chemstar Paints is the only paints industry that rewards its distributors and customers.

    On the criteria used to reward the distributors, the GMD listed, among others, the rate of their turnover (the volume of what they bought in that financial year); the percentage of appreciation of their business in the previous years; and distributors that have done so well in their different zones.

    Several distributors were rewarded in various categories – fast- growing distributor of the year, outstanding regional distributors, distributors with over 15 years business relationship and Shield paints outstanding distributors.

    They, however, went home with various gifts and cash prizes ranging from gas cooker, deep freezer, refrigerator, LG washing machine, LG Plasma TV, generator, standing fan, DVD player, electric kettle, home theatre and iron, among others.

  • Manufacturer demands single digit interest rate

    Manufacturer demands single digit interest rate

    The Federal Government has been urged to mandate the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to put in place strategic framework that will enable banks resume normal lending to the real sector at single digit interest rate to avert further strangulation and total collapse of business activities in the economy.

    Speaking with The Nation in Lagos, the Group Executive Director Golding Hamed Holdings, Chief Adebayo Hamed also urged the government to restructure all export-related agencies to take further stimulus measures and support industries to expand export in the country.

    He urged the government to introduce new incentives and faithfully implement existing concessionary duty rates on raw materials not available in the country.

    On energy supply to industries, he bemoaned what he called the recurring debacle of unavailable and un-sustainable power (energy), which has prevented the manufacturing sector to attain its full capacity and operate optimally. He said the cost of sourcing for alternate power, swells operational cost, leaving an insignificant profit margin for the manufacturers.

    He said: “The government should also ensure the immediate crafting of a national policy on gas pricing that will eliminate monopoly and reduce the number of beneficiaries on the value chain as quick wins that will improve the lot of manufacturing concerns and cushion the effect of the seemingly intractable business environment.”

    He affirmed that what qualifies a nation for the tag ‘developed economy’ is the presence of a virile manufacturing sector, adding that Nigeria would remain in the community of developing countries except the enabling environment required for manufacturing to thrive is created.

    He urged the government to urgently consider some of the issues militating against manufacturing and put in place a mechanism that will bring down the cost of doing business and enhance trade facilitation.

  • Trucks, vehicle manufacturer set for auto fair

    Manufacturers and distributors of commercial vehicles and trucks have affirmed their readiness to delight customers of their segments with the best of commercial vehicles and trucks at the forthcoming motor show.

    This is to keep the pace with the growing demand for durable and efficient commercial vehicles and trucks by logistics and business entrepreneurs in the country. The eight Lagos Motor Fair and Autoparts Expo Nigeria, organised by BKG Exhibitions Limited and SENEXPO International Fairs, will holds at the Federal Palace Hotel, Victoria Island next month.

    Some of the categories of commercial vehicles and trucks set to be at the venue of the event included: light and heavy duty trucks, tractor heads, tippers, trailers heads, tankers, cargo trucks, garbage trucks, 30-seater commercial Buses and pick-ups.

    Leventis Motors, distributor of Volkswagen and Eicher brands, National trucks Manufacturers (NTM), the nation’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturer and, First Automobile Workshop, distributor of FAW Trucks and buses are among companies warming up to showcase the best and latest from their stables.

    According to the Chairman organising committee, Mr Ifeanyi Agwu, the aforementioned had agreed to continually create and consistently provide relevant, affordable and dependable automobiles to the Nigeria and ECOWAS markets for safe and convenient transfer of goods and people.

    Agwu said: “These giants of truck distributorship in Nigeria while announcing their readiness to storm the fair arena with their wide range of heavy and light duty trucks, revealed their determination to unveil the best of the truck world to visitors at the fair.

    Another category of automobiles where keen contest will be highly at play is the luxury car and bus sections. On parade, there will be the latest from Toyota Nigeria Limited, Stallion Motors will parade its multi brands of Honda, Audi, Porsche, Hyundai, Skoda, Mahindra and Volkswagen products, while KIA Motors will showcase the latest in the KIA family etc.

    “From the lubricant section, Mobil, Oando, Coin Ventures and Lubcon Limited will be exhibiting the best in engine oils and transmission fluids. International Energy Insurance (IEI) will lead the financial sectors while Rosabon Nigeria Limited will showcase the best in Fleet Management and the chief regulator of automotive sector in the country, the National Automotive Council (NAC) will lead the government sector at the event.”