The National Centre for Technology Management says Nigeria’s leather industry has the potential to generate over $1 billion by 2025.

Maryanne Onyejekwe, the South-West zonal coordinator of NACETEM, said this at its Research Output Conference 2024 held in Lagos.

Ms Onyejekwe said Nigeria was Africa’s highest producer of leather and finished leather products.

She added that Nigeria was the largest producer of leather in Africa and ranked among the highest-quality leather found globally.

According to her, the industry generates about $600 million to $800 million annually, indicating that the subsector can be a key driver of Nigeria’s economic growth and development.

“Also, the leather processing and fabricating industry aligns perfectly with national goals by actively contributing to the country’s industrialisation 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.

Speaking about local content in the subsector, Ms Onyejekwe noted that its development and utilisation in all sectors of the nation’s economy would increase the employment ratio geometrically.

Ms Onyejekwe, also a director at NACETEM, said that local content would stimulate value creation and addition and improve the per capita income of the critical mass of its labour force.

According to her, it is in the light of the benefits of local content that the federal government passed into law the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and, by extension and most germane to the discourse, the Presidential Executive Order 5.

She said Presidential Executive Order 5 was to develop, promote, and enforce local content and made-in-Nigeria goods and services. She said that local content development was critical for the economic growth and development of the nation, adding that it was more aptly so in the face of dwindling economic fortunes and increasing unemployment.

Olayemi Dickson, NACETEM’s assistant chief research officer, said Nigeria’s leather was in high demand in Italy, Spain, India, and China, among others.

Ms Dickson said leather exporting companies in Nigeria produce over 8,000 jobs with an export value of about $272 million in 2022. According to her, to meet international and local demands, the leather firms in Nigeria require a high level of technological capability.

NACETEM’s assistant director of research, Victor  Sobanke, said the leather industry made up about 24 per cent of the agricultural sector’s contribution to Nigeria’s GDP.

Mr Sobanke said that, unfortunately, despite the industry’s potential, the sector’s productivity decreased due to unsophisticated technology, resulting in substandard and low-quality 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.’’

(NAN)