Nigeria Content Online

There is hope of more jobs by re-invigorating the natural small
scale industrial clusters through capacity building and injecting new
technologies for increased productivity, says Peter Onwualu, the Director
General of the Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC). Below is
excerpt from an interview he had with a NEXT reporter:

Taking research result to the industries

One of the projects
we started last year and we are continuing is the raw materials
processing clusters. One of the things we do is to give competitive
research grants to individuals and institutions who have the expertise
in doing research in value addition for raw materials sourcing and
processing. We have done this over the years and the question is how do
we move the result of some of these researches to the private sector in
order to use them for production purposes? If you look around the
country, there are naturally existing raw materials processing clusters
like the leather cluster in Kano; shoe, bags and textile cluster in Aba
and in Abeokuta. Our idea was to look at these clusters, study their
challenges and see how we can assist them to function better to produce
competitively by injecting technologies into existing clusters. In some
cases, the plan is to establish new clusters and we think this is a new
idea. In the past what we did was once we have research results, we
build a pilot plant and from there, we go into commercialisation but
now if we find out for example that people in particular community are
already processing cassava, we now go into such communities, work with
them, find out what their problems are especially with respect to
technologies, and then find the research centres where these
technologies have been developed then inject them into their
operations. In that way, they become more competitive.

Identifying the Clusters

As a first step, we
started what is called cluster mapping. This involves scientific
identification and analysis of existing clusters. For instance, around
the FCT here, you are aware that we have the Kugbo furniture cluster.
We are working with them. We have also done a number of such mappings
in every state using our state coordinators. We have a baseline mapping
that has taken us all over the country to identify those clusters that
already exist. The mapping also includes interacting with the operators
to know their problems, challenges. We also visited the knowledge
centres around them: the polytechnics, universities, research
institutes to find out what they can offer in terms of technological
input into these clusters around them. So that has been completed. The
report is almost ready but we also know that for you to start such a
programme, you also need to train people.

774 clusters to benefit

One of the things
we did last year was to conduct an international training programme in
collaboration with Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) and
Pan African Competitiveness Forum. That Forum works on using clusters
to promote industrial competitiveness. We trained selected clusters
because after the baseline study we decided to start with at least two
clusters per geo political zone. The cluster training we had is to
prelude the emergence of at least one technologically viable cluster in
every local government. It is a tall order but it is part of our vision
2020. So we did this training and it was for Nigeria and Gambia. 30
Nigerian clusters participated at the training from all over the
country. They include the brass cluster in Bida; textile workers from
Aba; Tie and dye from Abeokuta; Otigba ICT cluster in Lagos among
others. Following that training, SIDA is now collaborating with us to
inject technologies into these clusters. What we told the different
clusters to do after the training was to go back, look at their
problems especially those ones that are technological and come up with
projects that will enhance their competitiveness. They were given some
templates for this. As I speak, they have all submitted their projects
and we are now synthesising them to be able to forward them to SIDA.
The arrangement is that SIDA will fund the project 50 per cent and raw
materials council will fund the remaining 50 per cent. The
beneficiaries will be these first set of clusters that have been
trained.

More Clusters to benefit in 2011

And in addition to
this training, we have now developed a blueprint for raw material
cluster development in Nigeria. This is ready for implementation and
then we have gone ahead to start with a few cases. One of the cases we
completed last year was the cashew nut processing cluster commissioned
in Ayangba, Kogi State. The plant is now functional but the entire
cluster is made up of a number of other cashew processing plants that
will be coming up in Enugu State, Abia State, Kogi State and Abeokuta
in Ogun State but we have already gone far in terms of discussion with
beneficiaries so that in 2011, you are going to see four of these
cashew processing industries all working together as a cluster. We used
last year to do a baseline and lay the foundation and started a few.
There are about three that we have ordered equipment for. One other
cluster we want to promote is the organic fertilizer production in
Emene industrial layout Enugu. In December 2010, the equipment for that
factory arrived from China and is now being installed. There is also
another one in Kebbi State on shea butter for processing shea nuts. The
equipment for that is being installed.

More money for SMEs

Clusters are
already in existence at rudimentary level with little technologies. To
make the programme very effective and successful, three different
bodies are involved. RMRDC represents the government and will provide
enabling environment through release of fund to research institutes
that develop technology that will be injected into the industry.
Ordinarily, the private sector man will not have the patience and time
to be going round looking for technology to use, the researcher may not
have the money to take his technology to the industries and that is
where the government comes in. We are also trying to bring in financial
institutions. We are discussing with NERFUND, Bank of Industry and some
commercial banks so that these small and medium scale enterprises can
source funding from the money market because there is no way we will
provide everything they need.

More jobs in the economy

In the last three
years, what has happened to the economy in terms of manufacturing is
that the figures are going down because a number of them are closing
down and some are relocating because of the challenges that the sector
faces. At the same time, government has a policy to diversify the
economy so that we don’t depend on oil all the time. One way to address
this is to see the emergence of more industries and we are targeting
the SMEs. Cluster exists as an informal sector. So what we are now
trying to do is, for any beneficiary, the number one step is that the
organisation has to be registered with the Corporate Affairs
Commission. Government gets revenue from the registration and it will
be easy to track the organisation for tax to increase revenue of the
government. An additional benefit to the economy is that each of these
industries must employ people.