Investigate Non-performance of Paper Mills Sold – Sen. Ekpenyong
The Nigerian Senate in its efforts towards bettering the nation and to ensure that everything gets working effectively as should in every sector has mandated its Committee on Privatization to investigate the operations and non-performance of paper mills sold by the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, to private interests.
The Upper Chamber also rejected a call on the Federal Government to establish Federal Paper Mills in each geo-political zones of the country.
The decision was reached sequel to the consideration of a motion on “the need to revive the Moribund Paper Mills in Nigeria.”
In a motion moved and sponsored in the red chamber by Senator Stephen Ekpenyong (PDP – Akwa Ibom Northwest) recalled that Nigeria’s three Paper Mills: Nigeria Paper Mill, NPM, Kwara State; Nigeria Newsprint Manufacturing Company, NNMC, Akwa Ibom State; and Nigeria National Paper Manufacturing Company, Ogun State, were established by the Federal Government in the 1960s and 1970s.
The mills produced corrugated cartons, sack kraft paper, Kraft paper, linear and chipboard as well as fluting media to meet the country’s needs in writing and printing papers. Says the lawmaker.
Ekpenyong noted that the Paper Mills were privatized by Government as a result of non-performance and lack of adequate funds to run them, adding that “paper production is one of the major activities regarded as a pointer to industrialization and educational development worldwide, making the sector a major booster to our economy.”
Ekpenyong expressed concern that “the sector has gone moribund since privatization, leaving the country with another huge income deficit.
Ekpenyong said: “The companies who bought these mills have either abandoned them or not been able to revive them to full capacity making the country depends on imported paper.
“Recent statistics by the Raw Material Research and Development Council, RMRDC, indicate that Nigeria lost over N800 billion annually to paper importation, while the Printers Association of Nigeria put the figure at $1 trillion US dollars annually through the importation of over one million metric tons of paper at the cost of $1,000 US dollars per tones.”
According to him, the Mills formerly had a workforce of over 300,000 people and an investment worth over N100 billion naira before the privatization policy by the government.
Ayooluwa Joshua