Augustine Aminu with agency report
The Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof Peter Onwualu has said that 90 per cent of the raw materials used in the country were imported by manufacturers.
Onwualu stated this on Friday in Abuja in an over the week on the sidelines of the ongoing 3rd International Conference on Natural Resource Development and Utilisation.
He urged the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) to collaborate with the Federal Government to stop the importation of raw materials that were available in the country.
Onwualu said that the objective of the conference was to enable the stakeholders to discuss ways of reducing substantially the volume of imported raw materials.
“Currently on the average, our industries import up to 80 to 90 per cent of their raw materials; on the other hand, there is no raw material that cannot be produced in this country.
“The only problem is that they are in their raw form; so what we are trying to do is to develop the sector to create an environment for private people to be able to harness those natural resources and process them and supply to the big industries so that this 80 to 90 per cent can gradually begin to come down. ”he said.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
