SME Operators Receive Training in Value-added Leather Products

• SME Operators Receive Training in Value-added Leather Products

A total of 90 Small and Medium Enterprise operators have received the Nigerian Export Promotion Council’s Zero-to-Export training programme focusing on value addition to leather products.

The Executive Director, NEPC, Mr Segun Awolowo, lamented the trend of exporting Nigeria’s leather in raw form, stressing that it creates jobs for other nations.

He spoke in Lagos during a public presentation and pop-up sales of made-in-Nigeria leather products.

Awolowo, who was represented by the Regional Coordinator, South West, NEPC, Babatunde Faleke, explained that the forum was aimed at building capacity of exporters on product development while also prequalifying them for export.

He maintained that adding value to the nation’s natural resources was the surest way to earn foreign exchange as well as create job opportunities for Nigeria’s teeming unemployed youths.

‘’Our target is to see how we can develop the potential of these exporters and we believe that if they get the right support, they would go places,” he said, adding that Nigerian exporters did not have a fair share of the $60bn global leather market.

“We have very few exporters of leather products in the global leather market space. So many people are not interested and they do not have the skill to produce to global standards and if we can just get two per cent of the global trade, we will be fine; but our target is five per cent of the global leather market.”

Also speaking at the event, the Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Wealth Creation and Employment, Temiwumi Tope-Banjoko, commended the initiative and restated the ministry’s commitment to drive non-oil export growth.

The Trade Commissioner, High Commission of Malaysia, Mohammed Maidin, commended NEPC for the initiative, saying that it was a good step for the country in its quest for economic diversification.

He also extended Malaysia’s invitation to Nigerian exporters to showcase their products during Malaysia’s trade fair scheduled to hold later in the year.