Tag Archives: TOOTHPICK

NDE commissions first Made-in-Nigeria toothpick and pencil

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It was a historic day last Thursday in Akure, the Ondo state capital as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) commissioned the first toothpick and pencil making factory in Nigeria.

Nigeria with a population of over 170 million persons and being the largest economy in Africa, sadly import every pencil used in the country. This development remains a sad tale in the country’s quest toward job creation and economic development

Quoting a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) report, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said last September that the country spends over $18million (about N5.6 billion) annually on importation of tooth picks.

Also, because there is no factory that produces pencils used by school children and other professionals in West African sub-region, Nigeria, therefore, spends colossal sums of money every year to import this product from other nations. It is estimated that over N750 billion is spent on importing pencils into the country annually.

For a country battling economic recession, spending such hard earned resources on non-essential items is indeed counterproductive.

In June 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) listed toothpick and 40 other products that will no longer access Foreign Exchange from CBN, banks and bureaux de change for such importation.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said the measure would prevent further depletion of the country’s foreign reserve, lamenting that the country was spending huge amount to import things that could be produced locally.

But in line with the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration quest to diversify the economy and encourage local manufacturing, young Nigerians are beginning to see the need to think outside the box.

Speaking during the commissioning, NDE Director General, Mr Kunle Obayan said that the Nigerian economy is facing challenges is no longer news. He said What should make news now are efforts being made to fix the economy

He said, “We may recall that all the tooth pick and pencils used in this country are imported. You may now appreciate why I referred to this project as a novel one. This is probably, the first indigenous toothpick making factory in Nigeria

“It is on record that millions of dollars are spent annually in the importation of toothpicks and pencils. The Central Bank of Nigeria no longer provides foreign exchange for the importation of toothpicks therefore; the viability of this project is not in doubt.”

According to Obayan, it is however time for Nigerians to change the lifestyle of love for foreign goods and adapt to the dictates of our current socio-economic realities.

He said, “We no longer need to import toothpicks from China or any other country for that matter. Let us begin to patronize our own from today henceforth”

He said the expectation of the NDE is that the factory will be able to provide 30 immediate direct jobs and another 150 indirect jobs within the first months of operation.

He said the Directorate will also lay the foundation for the gradual substitution of the importation of toothpicks while aiming at export of same.

On the pencil production, he said all the equipment needed for the production of pencils have been purchased and installed but the authorisation for the use of formaldehyde Resin Powder, an essential commodity in the production process is being awaited.

He said, “I wish to use this opportunity to request the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to expeditiously approve the application for waiver of End user’s Certificate (ECU) for Urea formaldehyde Resin Powder, an essential input in the production of pencils using waste paper.”

He said when the second component of this initiative takes off, the NDE is confident that over 2,000 jobs would have been injected into the economy.

He said, “We don’t have anybody that does that in Nigeria. We import all our pencils. And we have a beneficiary who has set up a plant to produce pencil. The beauty of this pencil is that it is actually made out of waste paper. It is not from wood. So, it is from waste to wealth.”

In his speech, the Chief operating officer of the toothpick factory, Samuel Babatunde, thanked the NDE for the support in the actualization of the project.

He said, “we sincerely appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari whose insistence that we must use made in Nigeria products. Though, to the average Nigerian, this is causing a lot of hardship but there is nothing good that comes easy.”

With this development, it is hoped that the process for Nigeria’s economic recovery has begun.

It’s Shameful To Import Toothpick, Fish, Eggs, Sugar, Wheat —CBN Governor

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Gives reasons for excluding rice, others from forex Says importers can’t access forex in any market

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, yesterday said that importers of rice, cement and other products will no longer access Foreign Exchange from CBN, banks and bureaux de change for such importation.

The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, who disclosed this at a news conference in Abuja, said the measure would prevent further depletion of the country’s foreign reserve.

He said the country was spending huge amount to import things that could be produced locally, adding that the apex bank would not continue to support the importation of such items through the
use of the hard earned foreign exchange.

Some of the products include margarine, palm kernel, palm oil products, meat and processed meat products, vegetables, private airplanes and jets, Indian incense, tinned fish, galvanised steel sheet, roofing sheet and furniture.

He said: “Importers who may want to continue importing these goods would have to sort their foreign exchange from their own private sources. The CBN will continue to be vigilant around this policy, keep reviewing the list of items as it becomes comfortable that these items can be produced locally if we apply ourselves sufficiently.

Emefiele said the CBN was forced to come up with the new policy to exclude importers of rice and 40 other items from the foreign exchange market in order to save the nation’s economy.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, he said the time has come for Nigerians to decide what must be done to realise the much-desired economic development, rather than making the nation a dumping ground for other economies of the world.

Warns banks, bureaux de change

According to Emefiele, importers of the listed items would not be allowed access to foreign exchange even from the bureau de change and that any bank or bureaux de change that tried infractions would be severely punished.

His words: “We will not make foreign exchange available to such importers from any market. If you read that circular, it said ‘from Nigerian foreign exchange markets’, plural not singular.   Foreign exchange will not be provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria, the banks or by bureaux de change. If we find people flouting it, luckily these people we have mentioned are under our regulation, we know how to deal with them.

“Sometimes, policy changes are forced on policymakers as a result of exogenous shocks beyond their control. While most people do not like to be forced to do something, one of the hallmarks of effective policymaking is to be nimble and responsive when such situations arise.

“In the case of yesterday’s (Tuesday) announcement, I am happy to inform and underscore that this policy change is in line with my long-held believe that Nigeria cannot attain its true potentials by simply importing everything. At some point, we have to all decide what we really want for our country, and I believe that the time is now right for that deep and honest conversation.”

He added that CBN’s analyses of the nation’s economic situation “compelled us to believe that we needed to aggressively begin the process of feeding ourselves by ourselves and producing much of what we need in this country.”

Emefiele noted that the nation was wasting huge amounts of money importing things that could be produced locally, a situation, he said, had become a drain on the nation’s Foreign Exchange Reserves.

It’s shameful that we have to import toothpick

According to him, “most of you are aware of the often-quoted number of N1.3 trillion, which is what we spend on average importing rice, fish, sugar, and wheat every year.

“I am saying it is shameful that we have to import toothpick.  I am saying that it is shameful for us to import fish in sauce canned, fish in sauce and sardine. I am saying it is shameful. Before I was born palm kernel was taken out of Nigeria and taken to another country and today we go to that country and import palm oil. It is shameful.

“It is shameful that items that we used to produce in this country we now begin to import them. It is shameful and we need to stop them. That is what we are saying.

“Only last week, I met the Governor of Kebbi State and he lamented the unfortunate situation in that state. Where people, our own farmers, have committed themselves to producing rice and have produced paddy and we have paddy glut in Kebbi State today.

“As I speak, the government has spent its money buying paddy from the rice farmers, almost close to 200,000 of paddy rice.

“Aside from that, Kebbi State farmers have unpurchased paddy rice close to 800,000 tons. And yet we patronise imported rice. For our benefits, those rice imported to the country are those that have spent at least seven years in their stores and yet we have rice that is produced today in Nigeria and we are running away from them.

“The only way we can encourage people who are producing rice to go back to the farms is to do what we have done today.

“How can we keep complaining about the depreciation of the naira when all we do as a people is to import everything from ordinary Geisha and toothpicks to even eggs? These are some of the fundamental reasons behind the bank’s recent announcement.”

He disclosed that there was already a glut in paddy rice in parts of the country, especially Kebbi State where the government had spent huge sums of money to buy off 200,000 tons from the farmers, yet they had another 800,000 tons unpurchased.


Source: Vanguard