A professor of ceramic, Eguakhide Oaikhinan, says Nigeria’s ceramic industry can help to create up to five million jobs.
Oaikhinan said unemployment had been causing psychological and economic difficulties among young people and had created a significant GDP gap in the country.
He stated that the ceramic industry as one of Nigeria’s oldest had the ability to make many young people entrepreneurs and take them off the streets.
Speaking at the inauguration of his foundation, Oaikhinan Ceramics Foundation, the professor said ceramic had an important role in the sustainable industrialisation of any nation in the light of its strategic application in numerous industry sectors such as aviation, automobile, building and construction, defence and security, electrical and electronics, engineering and industrial manufacturing.
He said, “Currently, Nigeria is spending approximately $900m yearly on ceramic importation, out of which ceramic tiles imports per year are over $500m and projected to reach $2.1bn by the year 2025.
“Despite the economic downturn, Nigeria remains a nation with great growth potential for ceramic tiles and other products. Ceramic manufacturing is an old discipline in Nigeria. During the 1950s and 1980s, Nigeria was home to a vibrant ceramic industry.”
He stated that during those periods, five international ceramic manufacturing firms were in operation in Nigeria and had adequate installed production capacity to meet local ceramic demands.
He however lamented that due to a neglect of the industry as government abandoned its buy-local directive and shifted its focus towards oil production, the companies became moribund.
“The first ceramic industry in Nigeria was established in Okigwe in 1951. Currently, there are nine operating ceramic companies in Nigeria, eight for tiles and one for sanitary ware, with average production capacity of 40,000 to 45,000 square metres per day for the eight manufacturing companies combined,” he said.
According to the professor, he set up the foundation with his wife to empower youths, particularly young girls that make up 51 per cent of employees in ceramic business, to become entrepreneurs.
“This foundation is an opportunity to deliver our youths from criminal tendencies, give them a career that will make them contributing members to our national economic growth,” he said.
A former Director-General of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Dr John Isemede, described ceramic as a multi-billion dollar industry that had not been explored in Nigeria.
He said it had become necessary to equip the youths with the necessary skills for Nigeria to be able to compete with other nations of the world in terms of industrialisation.
Source: Punch
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