Importation of pencils

Recently, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu lamented the importation of pencils into the country. While on an inspection tour of the Projects Development Agency (PRODA), Enugu, the minister decried a situation where the country continues to import pencils from China, 55 years after Independence. We share the minister’s pains and embarrassment at this development, especially when pencil does not require any sophisticated technology to manufacture. It is even more shameful and disheartening that the authorities should allow importers to fritter the nation’s foreign exchange on importation of pencils.
Definitely, the importation of such low technology item shows the technology nadir the country has plunged over the years. There is no doubt Nigeria’s huge market of 170 million people has been taken over by goods produced in other countries. Today, we have been turned to a nation of shopkeepers and sellers of goods imported from other lands.
The rapid de-industrialisation and a shriveling real sector has wiped out jobs from the local economy, compounding the task of keeping the booming youth population out of crime. Incidentally, what goes for pencil is reminiscent of the entire economy. From toothpicks to motor vehicles and from textiles to newsprint, all find their way into the country through importation.
More painful is the fact that majority of the imported items are not only substandard, but more so second hand. A reason for this unrestrained importation syndrome is that the country hardly boasts of any manufacturing outfit worth the name. For example, until few years ago, the country had two local tyre-manufacturing firms. Owing to hostile operating environment, both shut down their factories and relocated to another country with a more favourable climate. It may shock Nigerians to know that majority of stationeries in our markets and bookstalls are imported, even when the country has abundant raw materials to manufacture these items. In the process of importing stationeries, the country losses billions of naira that could have been better utilised in the economy for infrastructure development.
Question is how can the country engage in the manufacture of stationeries and other ancillary products when the paper mills established with taxpayers’ money have since closed down. The minister’s remark at the continued importation of pencil may serve its political purpose, especially as it was made at PRODA, an institute that had over the years been battling with dilapidated equipment and deteriorating infrastructure. It also does not speak well of the authorities, especially when it is known that PRODA is government owned.
The handicap facing the institute is symptomatic of the general neglect being suffered by its contemporaries across the country. Unfortunately, not only pencil that is imported into the country; Nigeria also loses billions of naira to importation of rice, chicken and fish, even as we also import refined petroleum products, when we are among the world’s leading producers of crude oil. While agreeing with the minister, that the local manufacture of pencil would create more than 400,000 jobs, especially through the value chain. However, that cannot be achieved when the country lacks the critical infrastructure and enabling environment for enterprises to operate.