Funding PRODA to create jobs via local production of pencils

The entourage in the recent visit of Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, the Minister of Science and Technology to Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, observed that previous administrations had not done enough to develop technology as a key sector.

The minister and his entourage were surprised when they were told that Nigeria imported pencils while PRODA has the capacity to produce 150 million pencils annually but not empowered.

Mr Godfrey Ihezie, Coordinator of the PRODA Pencil Project, told the minister that the value-chain of pencil production could create more than 400, 000 jobs.
He explained that the six geo-political zones could replicate the project since the raw materials were available in the country.

He appealed to the minister to intervene and hasten the release of some imported equipment meant for the pencil production project being held at the Lagos port.

Ihezie stressed the need for government to show serious interest in the project, adding that if completed it would be the first of its kind in West Africa.

According to him, the raw materials are graphite, lead, wood, aluminum and local clay, among others, that PRODA can use to produce 3B, 2B, HB, 4B and GH.

Ihezie said that PRODA also had the capacity to domesticate pencil making technology it the institute is funded adequately.
“The employment aspect should be taken very seriously, pencil has large market, there is no pencil factory in West Africa,’’ he said.

Mr Charles Agulanna, Director-General of PRODA, in his address, said that PRODA was established by the defunct East Central State Government under Edict No. II of 1971.

“It was established to absorb all the technocrats and artisans that served under Research and Production during the civil war.

“It was charged with the broad function of generating and catalysing industrialisation by carrying out industrial research from the laboratory stage to the pilot plant stage.

“When in 1976, East Central State was split into Anambra and Imo, the Federal Government took it over as a research institute, under Decree No.5 of 1977,’’ he said.
Agulanna, represented by Dr Edwin Oriaku, Director of Engineering, said PRODA “is one of the oldest research institutes in the ministry’’.

He regretted that the institute had not received the attention it required from the Federal Government.

He also said that allocation of funds had persistently been short of requirement for research and development.

“PRODA’s yearning over the years for retooling to replace the obsolete machines inherited from the former Eastern Nigeria has only started yielding results in 2009,’’ he said.

He expressed regret that some equipment imported for the production of pencils had been withheld at sea port more than two years.

“The degree of success we achieved in PRODA in awakening local capabilities in equipment manufacture is indicated by the vast numbers of self-employed craftsmen surviving on equipment circulated by us,’’ he said.

He insisted that the institute had the capacity to make greater impact in the country if it got the required funding.

Onu, who was not pleased about the inability of PRODA to produce pencils in spite of the abundance of raw materials in the country, promised that PRODA would start pencils production soon.

The minister said that government could not afford to toy with a project that could create 400,000 jobs.

He said that it was wrong for the country to be importing pencils when it had the capacity to produce them.

“It is unthinkable that 55 years after independence, Nigeria is still not producing pencils when we have the human and material resources in the country.

“PRODA has to produce pencils for Nigeria and they have given me the assurance that this can be done, so, with pencil manufactured here, we will 400,000 new jobs.

“President Muhammadu Buhari administration is committed to creating new jobs and growing our economy,’’ he said.

The minister said that the ministry would give PRODA the necessary assistance to reach its target, insisting that the agency could do more than it was doing now with the needed support.

He also observed that the country could leverage on pencil production to increase its foreign earnings.

Pencil is not produced anywhere in West Africa, so I am directing PRODA to realise this within the next two years,’’ he said.

Onu also stressed the need to build the capacity of Nigerians in all sectors, saying “we need to build the capacity for self-reliance in Nigeria.

“We are tired of copying others and importing all sorts of things; we want others to come to Nigeria and learn’’.
Onu has on many occasions stressed that no nation can develop without embracing science and technology the statement he recalled recently when the Concerned Ebonyi Indigenes in Abuja hosted him.

According to him, Nigeria has the potential of becoming one of the 10 leading economies of the world, especially with its population.

“The U.S. is the greatest power in the world; the largest economy, the strongest military and the U.S. has the highest diplomatic potential that it has used in the maintenance of peace all over the world.

“But the U.S. was able, is able and will continue to do so, as long as it is leading in science and technology; we cannot do it without science and technology,’’ he insisted.

The minister said that it was science and technology that Japan used to convert its economy from a developing economy at the end of World War II to become the second largest economy at the end of the 1980s.

“Science and technology will take Nigeria to a height unimagined today, we will do our best to be the instruments that Nigeria will use to get to that height,’’ he promised.

In recognition of the importance of science and technology, President Muhammadu Buhari has reaffirmed the readiness of his administration to reposition Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) as a national priority to guarantee sustainability, high standard of living and quality of life for Nigerians.

The president stated this recently in Abuja at the maiden meeting of the National Research and Innovation Council, promising that the Federal Government would fast-track industrial and economic development through the STI.

According to him, his administration’s determination to secure the nation, grow the economy, create jobs and fight crime can best be achieved through the promotion of science and technology.

“I am aware that Nigeria must accord high priority to science and technology if it must take it rightful place among the leading economies in the modern world.

“Nigeria’s vision of becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020 is only attainable when Science, Technology and Innovation are fully integrated into our national socio-economic development process.

“I wish to assure this council of my determination and commitment to ensure that as a nation, we will invest appropriately in STI to guarantee our competitiveness both continentally and globally.

Analysts, therefore, opine that with the promise of the Federal Government to promote STI, PRODA can create jobs through local production of pencils and boost the nation’s economy.