Wole-Madariola Olumide, Chief Executive Officer for FUT Conceptus Manufacturing Ltd., manufacturers of leather footwear seems to think the leather industry can generate 70% revenue for Nigeria.
Excerpts:
“Generally, how do you see shoe business in Nigeria?
I can call it a bastardised sector because it is a sector where anybody can make shoe but not everybody makes good shoes. Before our advent, you find cobblers all over the places, you find people in the Eastern part of the country having mini establishments to make one or two things. It is a sector where you find both mediocre and experts. Suddenly, the experts disappeared because they didn’t have favourable conditions to work with.
The problem was compounded by the Asians coming into the country with all sort of products, products they themselves cannot put on . It’s a sector that has not been well attended to by the government most especially.
But I tell you that the leather industry in Nigeria can generate as much as 70%. Go to the northern part of the country, you will see everything that has to do with leather there. Some Europeans come to the country, take raw materials from us to their country and refines it and still brings it back to sell to us as finished leather which we buy as Spanish, Italian, British or American products. You can see the indolence of the government in that respect and it is causing the country a lot.”
Catch the whole interview at Vanguard Online with Moses Nosike.
Photo used for illsutration
Photocredit: Gusto hype brown leather bag
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