Seun: What's a private member bill?

ohammed Onawo, Chairman, House Committee on Commerce and Industry
01 Oct 2012

By Crusoe Osagie

The House of Representatives committee on commerce and industry has called on industrialists and investors in the country to come forward with private bills on industrialisation that would help transform the economy.

The committee stated that there was a need to urgently promote the diversification of the Nigerian economy through a rapid and sustainable growth plan for the industrial sector.
Chairman of the committee, Mohammed Onawo, during its visit to the production facilities of Wempco Group in Lagos, as part of its oversight functions to the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), said there was still hope for the economic transformation of Nigeria from what could be seen at the company.

He remarked that in the past “inferior products were said to originate from Taiwan and recently from China, but surprisingly the Chinese are here in Nigeria making quality products which can favourably compete globally.

“The Federal Government will be prompted to do more through its industrialisation policy by the achievement of this company. It is a foolish thing to depend on one source of income (crude oil) especially with experts predicting that our oil will dry up in the next 40 years,” he said.

Onawo assured the company’s management that the committee was ready to help them assuage some of the challenges that they may be facing.

“A private member Bill can be sent to us by any industrialist and investor which will be sponsored by members of this committee in the House. We will continue to promote Bills that will give our partners confidence and secure their investments,” he said.

Onawo said that the committee members were gladdened by the employment and wealth creation capacity of the company, the training of Nigerians to operate industrial machines and the assurance that in the next five years all their raw materials would be locally sourced.

“This is an individual company currently generating 54 megawatts of electricity on its own, and being here for the past 40 years it is obvious that they know more about Nigeria than China, so they can better tell the true story of Nigeria as a country of opportunities for those who are seeking success,” he said.

In his response, the Chairman of the Group, Alhaji Tokunbo Ali, disclosed that the company started in 1968 with UNICO, manufacturing enamel ware, and then expanded to other sectors such as steel, plywood, hospitality, roofing sheets among others.

He said the company boasts of owning the largest wood plantation in Nigeria and 15 factories across the country with around 15,000 staff currently in the employ of the group. “We are still marching on with our expansion vision because we are not a ‘briefcase Group’ and we assure SON that we will abide by their quality standards,” he said.

Explaining the operations of the company to the Committee members, the Managing Director of the company, Lewis Tung, said the company believes in producing only the highest quality and thus installed a mix of Chinese (hardware) and European (design) machines in its 500,000 metric tonnes cold-roll steel plant.

He stated that the company has one of the best welding machines in the world and the only one in Nigeria installed by its German strategic partner, designed to reduce the cost of production, while also adding more value to its finished products.

He said the company has applied for the acquisition of the Itakpe Steel Mill in order to help actualise President Goodluck Jonathan’s desire to produce three million metric tonnes of steel in Nigeria by 2015, stressing that steel is the backbone of all industries and that there was no reason for Nigeria not to be a producer and exporter of steel.

He disclosed that the company was currently saving the country about $3.6million monthly in foreign exchange through local production of high quality ceramic tiles. “We thank SON for their guidance and for always regulating our standards. Because of it today, we have a quality success story,” he said.