The Federal Government has approved the establishment of Shoe, Garment, and Leather processing factories in Kano and Abia state, through a PPP worth N5.08 billion, in a bid to revive its production.

This disclosure was made by the Federal Minister of Interior, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, in a tweet via his official Twitter account.

Yesterday, the Federal Executive Council approved a memo I presented on the establishment of Shoe, Garment and leather processing factories in Janguza, Kano State and Aba in Abia State under a PPP arrangement. pic.twitter.com/658ryBWE1E

— Rauf Aregbesola (@raufaregbesola) October 8, 2020

The decision to establish the processing factories was borne from the Memo which Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, presented during the Federal Executive Council meeting yesterday.

The memo gave a detailed analysis of how the potentials in the shoe, garment and leather processing industry could be harnessed and used to the country’s advantage to create value, foster social development and remedy the country’s unemployment issues.

The Minister while presenting the memo, explained that the establishment of Shoe, Garment and Leather processing factories in Janguza, Kano State and Aba in Abia State under a PPP arrangement worth N5.08 billion, will create 1,290 direct employment and 3,000 indirect employment when the factories become operational.

(READ MORE: FG to revitalize rice farms in rice producing regions)

Providing more details on the arrangement of the project, Mr Aregbesola reiterated that the establishment of the factories will be under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with Erojim Investment Limited and its technical partners, Poly Technologies of China.

It is important to note that the PPP arrangement is aimed at establishing a world-class factory using the most modern technology and quality inputs to produce high-quality shoes, garments, and leather products to meet the demand of NCS and other Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), whose personnel wear uniforms and make use of other accessories.

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In case you missed it: The FG in May had disclosed through the Director-General of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Mr. Chidi Izuwah, that it would be targeting N5.08 billion from the partnership with the private sector to revive the garment and leather industries.

At the time of the publication in May, Mr. Chid Izuwah explained that the N5.089 billion would be made up of 80 per cent debt and 20 per cent equity with zero financial contribution by the federal government.

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However, the approval of the establishment of the factories by the Federal Government is an avid step towards reviving Nigeria’s Manufacturing sector, as well as the activities of the garment and leather industries.

The Board of Directors of Berger Paints Plc, has announced the appointment of Mrs. Pheobe Onyinye Obi, as the new Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

This disclosure is contained in a press release dated October 5, 2020, signed by the Company’s Secretary and Legal Adviser, Ayokunle Ayoko.

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The Management emphasized that the decision of the Board which led to the appointment of Mrs. Phoebe Onyinye Obi as the CFO, is in line with the Berger Paints plan to strategically position its operations for increased efficiency and enhanced value creation.

Mrs. Obi comes with almost fifteen years of extensive local and international experience in leading Strategic Planning, Budgeting, and Corporate Finance for high-growth organizations, as she has worked at Management level in organizations like KPMG, Lion Seal Industries Limited, and Nomiworld/Sochitel Telecommunications Limited based in the UK.

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Prior to her appointment with BPN, she worked with Messrs. KPMG Professional Services (KPMG), from 2009 to 2018, where she rose from Senior Associate to Management Level. At KPMG, she spearheaded projects in Consumer Markets, adding several companies to the existing client base. Additionally, she met and surpassed deadlines and requirements of multinational group reporting both under IFRS and local statutory reporting requirements.

However, after she left KPMG in 2018, she was engaged as Senior Accountant at Lion Seal Industries Limited, from January 2019 till March 2020, before joining the United Kingdom (U.K) based firm of Nomiworld/Sochitel Telecommunications Limited as Head – Compliance and Financial Controls in April 2020.

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She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the Babcock University Remo, Ogun State and a Master’s Degree in Finance from the University of Lagos. She is a Member of the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) of the UK, and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN).

She has several certifications including Professional Training and Certificates in Supervisory skills, Intermediate/Advanced Microsoft Excel and Financial Modelling, KPMG Global Risk Management Training, United Nations E-Course on Climate Change, amongst others.

The Federal Government has stated that Rice Farms in Anambra State and other regions will be revitalized to boost rice production, create jobs and also improve the living standard of the people in the State and the region.

This was disclosed by the Minister of State, Agriculture and Rural Development, Hon. Mustapha Baba Shehuri, during the assessment of Federal Government Rice Farms/Mills in Omor and Umerum in Anambra State.

Given the importance of rice as a staple in Nigeria, the Minister stated that the Federal Government is taking steps to achieve self-sufficiency in rice production, and this is evident in the policies of the government in achieving food and nutrition security, import substitution and promotion of inclusive economic growth across all sectors of the economy.

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Government Policy Interventions in Agriculture and Rural Development has helped to develop the rice sector, and these interventions include the provision of farm inputs such as agrochemicals, organic fertilizers, knapsack sprayers, planting & harvesting equipment such as reapers, mini combine harvesters, threshers at a subsidized rate in order to increase productivity.

The Minister added that these policies have not only increased the quantity of rice produced annually but interventions through the provision of modern rice milling machines to small/medium scale processors, has also helped to improve the quality of Nigeria milled rice to international standard.

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However, Nigeria’s rice consumption still holds higher than production, but government interventions through myriads of policies have increased rice production from 4.8 million metric tons of milled rice in 2015 to over 6 million metric tons by 2019 with a huge reduction in the nation’s deficit.  Hon. Mustapha Baba Shehuri explained that production is expected to increase as the government continues to revitalize rice farmers.

Shehuri said that ”the Ministry has established 23 Paddy Aggregation Centers nationwide to aggregate and store paddy. The centres were given to members of the Paddy Dealers Association of Nigeria (PRIDAN) under the public-private partnership arrangement”.

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In like manners, there will be the dissemination of modern rice production and processing technologies, through capacity building of farmers and processors directly and also in conjunction with the international donor agencies such as Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), German International Cooperation (GIZ), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Competitive Africa Rice Initiative (CARI), AfricaRice.

He reiterated that the Ministry is currently responding to the challenges of food availability posed by the COVID-19 pandemic by supporting smallholder farmers nationwide with various inputs including certified seeds of improved varieties of food crops such as rice, maize, sorghum, wheat, orange-flesh sweet potato, groundnut cowpea, soybean, yam, as well as cash crops like cashew, cocoa, sesame, oil palm, gum Arabic. Others include herbicides, pesticides and agricultural machinery such as rice reapers, transplanters, power tillers motorized sprayers and processing equipment.

These interventions are expected to alleviate the effect of the pandemic on farmers and ensure that they keep producing food for the country.