FG to inaugurate N2billion paint factory in Q1, 2020

• Promises to support private sector industrial growth

The Federal Government has concluded plans to inaugurate an N2billion privately-built paint industry in Abuja, by 2020, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Richard Adeninyi Adebayo, has said.

Adebayo said the fully-automated plant has adequate capacity for large volume production with added benefits of increasing local capacity, thereby reducing importation of finished products, strengthening the local market and the Naira as well as creating massive employment for the youths.

The plant will be operated by Berger Paints Plc a 100 per cent indigenous firm, which commenced operations in Nigeria in January 1959.  

Adebayo gave the assurance yesterday when he received in audience the management of the company in his office.

He said: ‘’One of my mandates here, following my appointment by President Mohammadu Buhari, is to support private sector industrial growth. We are proud of what your management is doing, and we are ready to support you. I am not unaware of some of the challenges facing the paint industry in Nigeria, but we are working round the clock to address them.”

He further said that the government is already looking at industrialisation and agricultural revolution to expand the economy, create jobs, and take 10 million Nigerians out of poverty.

Earlier, the Chairman, Berger Paints, Abi Ayida, said the plant is in the final stage of factory acceptance testing for its full automation, which the contractors will handover in a few week’s time.

Ayida described the project, to be formally inaugurated by Adebayo in Q1 2020, as first of its kind in sub-Sahara Africa, and conforms to international standards.

He said: “The Company is on top of a major revolution in the paint industry, as it commissions a fully-automated water-based paint factory. We are only calling for improved access to forex for raw materials, which accounts for about 80 per cent of the industry’s inputs.’’

He also appealed to the government to consider the inclusion of paint raw materials among items on the priority list for forex access.