The Nigerian Upper Chamber, The Senate has resolved to revive the nation’s ailing paper mills scattered across the country in a bid for Nigeria to commence paper production in aid of industrialisation and educational development.
The resolution was sequel to a motion sponsored by Senator Stephen Ekpeyong titled: “The Need To Revive The Moribund Paper Mills,” during plenary on the need to revive the paper mills that had gone moribund since privatisation, thereby leaving the country with huge income deficit, explaining that companies who bought these mills have either abandoned them or have not been able to revive them to full capacity, thus making the country not only to depend on paper importation but also loss of over 300,000 jobs across the country at Nigeria’s three Paper Mills: Nigeria Paper Mill in Kwara State, Nigeria Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC) in Akwa lbom State, and Nigeria National Paper Manufacturing Company (NNPMC) in Ogun State.
In its resolutions, the Nigerian Senate said that it was worried by the recent statistics released by the Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC), which showed that Nigeria lost over N800 billion annually to paper importation, which the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON) also put at $1 trillion through annual importation of over one million metric tonnes of paper at the cost of $1,000 per tonne.
In view of this appalling statistics, the Senate expressed concerns that the unhealthy state of the paper mills has equally affected the Printing Industry in Nigeria with multiplier effect on the nation’s education sector. According to the statistics, the National Book Policy of five books per pupil which amounts to over 100 million books annually in a country with 20 million students, these books are printed outside the country which is a huge loss to the economy.
Accordingly, the Senate directed its Committee on Privatisation to investigate the activities and operations of the three paper mills and report back to the Senate. It also urged the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON) and Nigeria Customs Service to review duty on importation of published books and paper to make them more favourable to print locally in Nigeria than relying on imported printed materials.
Nigerian Senate President, Ahmad Lawan while urging the Committee on Privatisation to investigate the activities and operations of the mills also asked the Committee to get the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) to brief the Committee on the level of compliance with share agreements by investors.
It would be recalled that the three Paper Mills in the country established by the Federal Government in between the 1960s and 1970s in order to create raw materials for the Printing And Allied Industries while also creating needed employment were producing corrugated cartons, sack craft paper, kraft paper, linear and chip board to meet the country’s needs in writing and printing papers while creating added revenue to the Government. However, due largely to mismanagement and corrupt practices, the mills even when later privatised by the Government went moribund, leaving the country with huge income deficit.
© with support from NAN
