The Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) in Zaria, Kaduna State, has announced plans to establish mini tanneries in every state across the country to process hides and skins into leather.
Prof. Mohammed Yakubu, NILEST’s Director-General and Chairman of the National Leather Policy Implementation Committee, shared this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
He emphasized that the initiative aims to equip the sector with the necessary infrastructure and technology for effective leather processing, noting that leather is a significant national resource with the potential to generate foreign exchange and create substantial employment opportunities.
Need for mini tanneries
The Director-General added that setting up these mini tanneries would help reduce the domestic consumption of hides and skins, which currently occurs mainly due to the limited capacity of existing industries to absorb the excess production generated daily.
He said, “We are eating the hides and skin as ‘Kpomo’ because if we don’t eat it, the available industries cannot mop all the hides and skin produced in Nigeria. In Lagos State alone, they slaughter about 100,000 cows every day and there are only 48 industries that can buy and process the skin and convert it to leather.”
“That is why we are planning to establish mini tanneries all over Nigeria; our campaign to make people stop eating ‘Kpomo’ has gone far and wide. We are aware that if people stop eating Kpomo, those people engaged in selling it will go out of business.”
“So in the interim, we, the institute, are going to have mini tanneries all over Nigeria, so that we buy the hides and skin, process it into leather and export the leather.”
Prof. Yakubu further explained that the mini tanneries would process between one to five tonnes of leather weekly from each cluster, focusing on products that could be manufactured locally.
He mentioned that leather which could not be processed would be sold to other leather users in regions such as the South East, South West, Jos, and Kano.
Collapse of Nigeria’s leather industry
- He stated that the collapse of the leather industry was largely due to inadequate infrastructure.
- As a result, both the institute and the policy implementation committee would continue to urge the Federal Government to provide concessions, particularly in the form of affordable power, to help revive the industry.
- He emphasized that for Nigeria to compete with countries like China, Brazil, or India in the leather sector, a reliable and cost-effective power supply is essential.