According to the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Nigeria’s leather industry has the potential to generate over $1 billion by 2025.
NACETEM Southwest Zone Coordinator Marianne Onyejekwe stated this at the 2024 Research Achievement Conference in Lagos.
Onyejekwe said Nigeria is the largest producer of leather and finished leather products in Africa. She added that Nigeria produces some of the highest-quality leather in the world.
According to her, the industry generates about $600 million to $800 million annually, indicating that this subsector can be a major driver of economic growth and development in Nigeria.
“Also, the leather processing and fabricating industry aligns perfectly with national goals by actively contributing to the country’s industrialization efforts. To unlock its growth potential and overcome challenges, the leather processing and leather fabricating industry in Nigeria can explore international collaboration and investment opportunities.
“Technology transfer and collaboration with international partners can facilitate the transfer of advanced tanning technologies and best practices. International collaboration can help leather processing firms gain access to the global market, and partnerships with foreign distributors and retailers can open doors to a new customer base,” she said.
On the local share in this sub-sector, Ms. Onyejekwe noted that its development and utilization in all sectors of the national economy will exponentially increase employment rates. Ms Onyejekwe, who is also the Director of NACETEM, said local production would stimulate value creation and enhancement, improving per capita income for the critical workforce.
In their view, it was with consideration of the benefits of local production that the Federal Government passed the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and subsequently Presidential Decree No. 5, which is most relevant to this discussion.
He said Presidential Decree No. 5 is for the development, promotion, and enforcement of locally produced and made-in-Nigeria goods and services. He said the development of local production is crucial to the country’s economic growth and development, adding that this is more pertinent given the worsening economic situation and rising unemployment rate.
NACETEM’s Deputy Director for Research, Olayemi Dickson, said Nigerian leather is in high demand in Italy, Spain, India, China, among others. Dickson said Nigerian leather exporters will create over 8,000 jobs and exports will be worth about $272 million in 2022. According to her, Nigerian leather companies need advanced technical expertise to meet international and domestic demand.
NACETEM Deputy Director of Research, Victor Sobank, said the leather industry accounts for about 24 percent of the agricultural sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s GDP.
Sobank said despite the industry’s potential, unfortunately, immature technology has led to low productivity in the sector, resulting in the production of substandard leather products.
He said, “In fact, Nigeria is a net importer of finished leather products of about $500 million annually. Nigeria needs to convert its leather resources to fashionable finished products that are competitive in the world’s fashion markets.”
