Manufacturers Plan Expo to Boost Industrialisation, SMEs

Crusoe Osagie
The Nigeria manufacturing and equipment (NME) expo scheduled to hold on March 14 to 16, 2017 at Landmark Event Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, is designed to enhance the nation’s quest to achieve a virile industrialised economy, the organisers have said.

According to them, the programme would provide a platform for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to learn new processes on how to boost outputs, reduce costs, drive quality improvement and manufacture for new emerging markets across the globe.

The President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Frank Jacobs, explained that the expo would give top stakeholders in the private and public sectors opportunity to appraise developments in manufacturing and industry to jointly propose quick-win solutions that would help Nigeria revive its manufacturing sector.

Jacobs in a press briefing to announce the expo in collaboration with Clarion Events West Africa, said the yearly event was carved out in response to federal government’s commitment to industrialise and diversify the Nigerian ecomony, maintaining that last year edition has made great impact on Nigeria’s economy as attested to by the participants that cut across various sectors of the economy.

According to the MAN boss, this year’s event is expected to attract over 3,700 visitors and exhibitors from multinationals, large and small medium industries (SMIs) and other manufacturing equipment distributors from over 120 leading local and international suppliers.

“I have no doubt that this year’s edition would be bigger and better especially with its co-location with the Nigeria raw materials (NIRAM) expo. The infusion of NIRAM expo into the NME would afford several companies and countries a rare opportunity of exposure to the entire manufacturing value chain, which will include machinery, equipment, financial support, professional consultancy and raw materials,” he added.

He pointed out that the fair would be the most exciting thing to happen to the industrial sector in Nigeria in 2017, stressing that it would also provide opportunities for the large and medium size corporations to retool and get local sources of raw materials to boost production, reduce cost and time of procurement.

The Director General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Dr. Hussaini Ibrahim, said the previous editions of NIRAM expo have attained modest achievements, saying that today, industries can source for high quality starch, glucose syrups and extracts, fruit juice concentrates locally.

The Director General represented by the Director Investment and Consultancy, RMRDC, Mrs. Zainab Amanga, said the expo had also created a platform for highlighting the challenges to local sourcing of gypsum, noting that most of these challenges have been addressed giving opportunities to cement industries the opportunity to source for gypsum from local miners.
He added that there had been increased activities by farmers and miners because of the increase in local patronage, expressing hope that these trends would further improve with the 2017 edition to support the efforts of the federal government aimed at diversifying the economy through value addition to the nation’s agricultural and mineral resources.

The Managing Director, Clarion Events West Africa, Mr. Dele Alimi, said over 4,500 manufacturers and manufacturing equipment distributors expected to attend, evaluate and purchase latest manufacturing equipment, machine tools, technologies, spare parts and manufacturing raw materials will have opportunities to display their technologies to over 120 leading local and international suppliers.
He said the exhibition would make an even bigger impact on the Nigerian economy than the maiden edition which took place April last year.