Business Nigeria Spends N50bn Yearly on Importation of Paper - RMRDC

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LequteMan

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Director-general of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Dr. Hussaini Ibrahim has said the nation spends over N50 billion on paper and paper products’ importation annually.

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Speaking at a forum for stakeholders in the pulp, paper and paper products, printing and publishing sector, he attributed the capital flight in the sector to the inability of the three integrated pulp and paper mills, the Nigerian Paper Mill (NPM), the Nigeria Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC) and Nigerian National Paper Manufacturing Company (NNPMC) established by the Federal Government in the 1960s and 1970s to maintain and sustain optimal capacity utilisation.

"Two of the mills, the NPM and the NNMC were commissioned and were producing creditably in the 1980s, but the NNMC was shut down in 1993 and the NPM in 1996 due to low level production and poor quality products because of non-availability of local long fibre pulps and other technical problems. The NNPMC was not commissioned at all. The NPM started production of kraft papers after about a decade closure but under private sector while the NNMC and the NNPMC also under private sector have not yet started production.”

“Available statistics show that the country expends about N50 billion on the importation of paper and paper products annually.

“Also, the cost implication of non-performance by NNMC, Oku-Iboku, to the economy on annual basis from 2006 – 2009 was N18.76 billion.

"Within the four years considered, the deficit turn-over to the economy amounted to N74.8 billion. The total cost of non-performance of the three mills to the economy within the four-year period was estimated at about N153. 05 billion in 2009, and this has been calculated to be about N180 billion before the end of 2015.” he said.


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