Inability to secure foreign exchange (FX) is the only reason Asaba shoe cluster, nurtured and mentored by the United Nations Industrial Organisation (UNIDO), cannot produce 1000 pairs of shoes ordered by one of the world’s biggest shoe manufacturers in Britain.

Two other foreign shoe manufacturers have also looked in the direction of the Asaba shoe cluster for supplies, but this has not worked out despite the skills and raw materials available in Asaba cluster.

The officer in charge of the UNIDO regional office in Nigeria, Chuma Ezedimma, who disclosed this in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, at the sidelines of the retreat at the Oil/Gas Free Trade Zone Authority in Onne, said this development had created a lull in the Asaba cluster.

The UNIDO boss, who said the organisation had to sponsor a retreat of all agencies involved in the trade and investment sector to know the focus of the present administration, regretted that the Asaba leather works cluster could not secure FX from the Federal Government to bring in technical partners and machines needed to execute the contracts it won.

Ezedimma said: “We cannot transfer dollars out of the country. We wanted to bring in trainers to train the local people to develop the shoes for the two contracts. Clarks is asking for 1000 shoes. The factory is designed to train and to support the Onitsha shoe cluster so they can make any kind of shoes.”

According to Ezedimma, each of the clusters (Aba and Asaba) makes the best in the world, but “there is a machine there that gums and does compacting such that it cannot come off. It is a technology that has to be brought in. The machines are very important. One objective is to use those clusters to create more jobs.”

On the state of the Aba cluster, the UNIDO boss admitted that Nigerian Export Promotion Zone Authority (NEPZA) worked with UNIDO in Aba to set up a leather centre there and in Asaba, saying Aba was now functional and that UNIDO was working with the NEPZA to get a management consultant to manage the cluster.

He said: “Anyone who wants to utilize the machines there can do so. It is not for one owner but for you to walk in and utilize any of the machines for a fee. It is meant for a cluster, not for one person. It is not designed for one-man ownership. There is also a training component for them to understand what to do. Design is the focus because if you do not know how to design, it is difficult for you to be a successful show producer.

“The one in Delta is so interesting because they got a contract from Clarks, the British shoe manufacturer and Jonji and Manny. There is a lull in this transaction because of foreign exchange. The first set of 20 trainees in Asaba went to Italy and learnt only designs and came back to become employers. We have moved on that. The only thing stopping them is lack of capital due to foreign exchange because the Federal Government has not allowed us to move money out.”

The following day after this lamentation, the Federal Government through the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) liberalised FX windows, an action that may free the Asaba shoe group to move fast and execute the contracts.