₦airaland Forum

NDE Commissions First Made-in-Nigeria Toothpick And Pencil
By Micheal Oche
— Dec 13, 2016 7:31 am | Leave a comment
It was a historic day last Thursday in Akure, the Ondo state capital as the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) commissioned the first toothpick and pencil making factory in Nigeria.
Nigeria with a population of over 170 million persons and being the largest economy in Africa, sadly import every pencil used in the country. This development remains a sad tale in the country’s quest toward job creation and economic development
Quoting a Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) report, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, said last September that the country spends over $18million (about N5.6 billion) annually on importation of tooth picks.
Also, because there is no factory that produces pencils used by school children and other professionals in West African sub-region, Nigeria, therefore, spends colossal sums of money every year to import this product from other nations. It is estimated that over N750 billion is spent on importing pencils into the country annually.
For a country battling economic recession, spending such hard earned resources on non-essential items is indeed counterproductive.
In June 2015, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) listed toothpick and 40 other products that will no longer access Foreign Exchange from CBN, banks and bureaux de change for such importation.
The CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, said the measure would prevent further depletion of the country’s foreign reserve, lamenting that the country was spending huge amount to import things that could be produced locally.
But in line with the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration quest to diversify the economy and encourage local manufacturing, young Nigerians are beginning to see the need to think outside the box.
Speaking during the commissioning, NDE Director General, Mr Kunle Obayan said that the Nigerian economy is facing challenges is no longer news. He said What should make news now are efforts being made to fix the economy
He said, “We may recall that all the tooth pick and pencils used in this country are imported. You may now appreciate why I referred to this project as a novel one. This is probably, the first indigenous toothpick making factory in Nigeria
“It is on record that millions of dollars are spent annually in the importation of toothpicks and pencils. The Central Bank of Nigeria no longer provides foreign exchange for the importation of toothpicks therefore; the viability of this project is not in doubt.”
According to Obayan, it is however time for Nigerians to change the lifestyle of love for foreign goods and adapt to the dictates of our current socio-economic realities.
He said, “We no longer need to import toothpicks from China or any other country for that matter. Let us begin to patronize our own from today henceforth”
He said the expectation of the NDE is that the factory will be able to provide 30 immediate direct jobs and another 150 indirect jobs within the first months of operation.
He said the Directorate will also lay the foundation for the gradual substitution of the importation of toothpicks while aiming at export of same.
On the pencil production, he said all the equipment needed for the production of pencils have been purchased and installed but the authorisation for the use of formaldehyde Resin Powder, an essential commodity in the production process is being awaited.
He said, “I wish to use this opportunity to request the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to expeditiously approve the application for waiver of End user’s Certificate (ECU) for Urea formaldehyde Resin Powder, an essential input in the production of pencils using waste paper.”
He said when the second component of this initiative takes off, the NDE is confident that over 2,000 jobs would have been injected into the economy.
He said, “We don’t have anybody that does that in Nigeria. We import all our pencils. And we have a beneficiary who has set up a plant to produce pencil. The beauty of this pencil is that it is actually made out of waste paper. It is not from wood. So, it is from waste to wealth.”
In his speech, the Chief operating officer of the toothpick factory, Samuel Babatunde thanked the NDE for the support in the actualization of the project.
He said, “we sincerely appreciate President Muhammadu Buhari whose insistence that we must use made in Nigeria products. Though, to the average Nigerian, this is causing a lot of hardship but there is nothing good that comes easy.
With this development, it is hoped that the process for Nigeria’s economic recovery has begun.

Our amiable Gov did'nt realise that the joke is on him, did he just wake up to see that this road is bad or did the road just go bad in the one year plus the present Government has been in power, his theathrics would have meant something if he had been shouting about it in the past two years.

femi4:
Avogadro's law lo so wipe, Equal volume of all gases, Contain the same number of elements At the standard temperature and pressure

Did you attend BBHS, or were you a student of Mr Ogunyale

it seems PEJ is trying to buy a new life so she can live another 70 years smh

APCHaram:
The famous Groundnuts generated a total of 154,000 pounds.

Cocoa the same.

The only commodity that neared palm oil from the Niger Delta was Tin mining in Jos which wasn't even up to half of that realised from palm oil.

Can you people now shutup on that silly lie that your cocoa and groundnuts were used to develop the oil industry!

well for your information Oil palm doesn't wasn't farmed only in the Niger Delta there was also oil palm in the South west so stop praise singing your self and your region and don't forget also it wasn't until Aguiyi Ironside introduced Unitary system of government was the resources from all regions pooled together so each region was taking care of itself and contributing to the center.

Typical Nigerians chasing shadows instead of substance, rather than analyse and maybe pick an idea or two from the start up techs or just analyse how well the starts ups can impact the country they are busy wasting time on a made man. Fine, his presence may take the spotlight from this young entrepreneurs but for us we must not loose focus of the fact that the event might just produce the next big thing in the tech world and therefore we should start thinking of making the podium on the next event

vedaxcool:
So they don't have sniffer dogs? well government should provide the proper equipment at each airport to forstall such.

how will a dog sniff out drugs in somebody's stomach, Kai.

conductor1:
Source: http://www.somtoo.com/2016/08/aww-ada-ogbonna-names-her-dog-lai.html

fantastic I really like her endeavor I will like to name my pig Ada Ogbonna and my Rat after her father or any of her children to always remind me of her strength

caracas:
Three major factors made Lagos great
1.The igbos
2.Population
3.The ports .
If any of these three above is affected in any way Lagos would crumble.

you keep wishing! Ibos came to lagos because they saw a city that held potential, and why is calabar, port harcourt and all other cities with ports not as big economically as Lagos. And remember Lagos has always being big right from precolonial times. so stop your tribe forward like it is the only one in lagos.

Keneking:
Ok

- I thought APC informed Nigerians that only Lagos Port is the only functional port generating income for FG
- Since the last government failed to dredge the Calabar channel, when shall APC commence dredging operations?
- Even the wreckage of a ship “Hope of ECOWAS’’ has been removed. But we were told that PDP-led FG did not invest in that port.

They just rode to power with fat lies. Useless party and their propaganda.

Nonsense

Maybe you didn't read the where the concessionaires complained about under utilization of their capacities and the part where the MD of the port who was appointed September 2015 by President Buhari listed how he solved the problems he inherited from GEJ

Johnnyessence:
good question teach them how to fish.instead of them to introduce policies and program that will change things for d poor they are signing mou that will only benefit d estate developers. am 100 percent sure d poor breed won't benefit from it.it's only d riches. why?

So it is the rich that will be the be the carpenter, the plumber, the bricklayer etc smh. some people shaaaaa! Oga you go school at all.

Tomato, welcome back at least this is a respite for the people and government.

Obiano, e be like say na for your soak away this 30 billion barrels of oil and1 trillion cubic ft of gas they abi, lie lie, he lie so tay devil talk say he won do apprentice

Mboi2:
You are the one with childish brain here. That Fashola is taking over to continue from where his predecessor stopped on a project, does it make him the initiator or master minder of the project. The previous govt has made all necessary arrangements, negotiations, and set out modalities on ground with good and experienced contractors to execute the job and paid them the first agreed amount. The only thing Fashola did here was performing his duty as supposed by just making their money available to them to go back to site. Now tell me how is this project his own? If the previous govt did not with the high level of intelligence and technical know-how award and start up this project, Fashola and his team will not know what to do on the road. He will mess it up the way he messed up the power sector.

All these pay-per-post boys, I don't blame corrupt politicians, I blame you boys that made yourselves their tools. When you see grey, you insist it is black because somebody is paying you to call it black. Sorry...

This project is a Federal Government project, Governance is a continuum thus who ever comes into Government continues from where his predecessor stops. Nobody uses his own personal money to execute this projects so no one can lay a claim to it.

Momoduking:
Old project awarded by the last government. Stop deceiving Nigerians..

And because it was awarded by the previous government then it should be abandoned so that you will not be able to attribute the completion to this Government. But sorry sir, No offense O! Did you attend school at all? Just asking.

Momoduking:
Old project awarded by the last government. Stop deceiving Nigerians..

And because it was awarded by the previous government then it should be abandoned so that you will not be able to attribute the completion to this Government. But sorry sir, No offense O! Did you attend. school at all, just asking.

Acjohn:
Setting up security for the herdsmen before their arrival because they will definitely offend their host community and need protection because they won't agree to remain in the ranches.


Fammers oooo sell your hoes and buy guns oooo because BUHARI brothers are coming to kill and rape oooo. I don tell you. He give them security self

Maybe if you were patient enough to read the post thoroughly you would realise that the security arrangements is to prevent the herders from leaving the ranch as well as protect the host communities thereby solving the problem of farm destruction and violence. Government is trying to solve a problem but you prefer that the problem remains unsolved or it escalates so this government can fail and you can have your wish of returning the Looters back to power.

emmydollars4life:
One day the country will provoke it's citizens to march to the street to declare every politician's wanted. Is now a joking matter, people are loosing their work, no employment, no salary to the ones working, inflation is all time high, imagine kerosene is N300. Our only crime is that we are Nigerians

No, your only crime was that you allowed evil people to milk you dry. President Buhari can only work in the ambit of what is available. So be patient, the rise in prices you see is the direct result of the downturn in the economy, but hopefully things should get better soon.Though, it could have been managed better but I guess they are still learning ropes.

In truth there are a lot of complaints but just as it is said where there is no pain there is no gain we patiently watched as our collective wealth was squandered by previous governments and did nothing until we voted this government in to office and we must. be patient with to actualized the plans they have for us and if they are not
able to put Nigeria on a path of recovery before their tenure expires then we change the change again and again until we get it right.

FredN:
Zombies like to say PDP destroyed Nigeria in 16 yrs. If PDP were really aiming to destroy this country... methinks 16 yrs is too long for them to do that. If the kind of destruction we have seen in the last 10 months has been in force for the last 16 years.... THERE WONT HAVE BEEN A NIGERIA BY NOW. PMB IS GETTING EVERYTHING WRONG.... EVERYTHING

we had slow progress in the last 16 years... what we are seeing now is a very very fast destruction in 10 months. We are actually speeding in reverse

Its like all the alarms are blaring and all the indications are RED! In a plane carrying 170m Nigerians while the pilot is buzy trying to look for his missing cheque book.

By the way... Nigeria isnt 16 years old. APC started this 16 years shit to blindside gullible Nigerians so we can wasily forget that BUHARI was once part of the problem.

I dont like GEJ, I dont like PDP... but it will be fair to judge Buhari with his first tenure as military president together with his 10 months and compare it with GEJ 6 years. That will five you an idea of who is a better option

I do hope for a better candidate from any party in the future because as it stands ... we just ditched a frying pan for the fire

you are right that pdp did not destroy Nigeria but they destroyed what Niferia could have been, patience is all that is required.

Sijo01:
booohari has really disappointed his followers

Buhari has dissappointed none that voted him into office but good things don't come easy but we only pray that soon it will get better but as for a government with direction this government stands out like a lamp in the darkness of the night