Merit Ibe
The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has raised concerns over the state of the pulp and paper industry in the country, and has called for collaboration between state governments and the private sector to revive the ailing industry
The Chamber said it was disheartening that despite the huge potential of the paper industry and its strategic importance in the broader manufacturing value chain, successive administrations have neglected the industry leading to itrs comatose state today.
The Chairperson, Printing & Publishing Group of LCCI, Princess Layo Okeowo, made the disclosure during a webinar tagged “ Revitalising Nigerian Paper Industry: Challenges & Opportunities In South-Western, Nigeria.
The event, which was aimed at facilitating strategic, actionable, and effective measures that would significantly help to revive the paper industry from its current state of comatose, had stakeholders make their contributions. The stakeholders, who emphasised the huge prospects for growth in the industry, noted the paper industry was a viable ground for investors, adding that unavailability of raw materials was one of the major reasons investors are looking away from Nigeria’s multi-billion dollar paper industry.
Okeowo noted the need for sector-specific policy measures to reflate activities in the paper and allied product industry. She called for collaboration in the area of research (Paper Research Institute) on how to grow improved trees, own and manage plantations that would feed the mills, as well as the creation of training sectors that would strengthen the skills of young individuals in paper mill operations.
Adding that friendly policies were also needed to encourage higher private sector participation in the paper industry, she said the poor performance of the paper mills could be attributed, in part, to insufficient supplies of long fibre pulp.