8TH TECHNO
EXPO TO TARGET INDIGENOUS EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURING CAPACITY
As part of efforts to shore up
indigenous capacities and skills for equipment manufacturing for
sustainable development of the nation’s raw materials sector, the
Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) plans to show
case over 50 exhibitors, including fabricators, manufacturers and
research institutes drawn from countries in the West African
Sub-region in the forthcoming Techno- Exposition.
Scheduled to begin on Monday,
November 13th to Thursday, 16th, 2006, in
Abuja, the Director General of the Council, Engr. (Prof) Peter
Azikiwe Onwualu stated that the fair, 8th in the series,
was being packaged to expose a number of investment windows and
opportunities in projects such as sesame and sheanut processing,
barite and gypsum processing.
Prof. Onwualu who expressed this
at a press conference, recently organized by the Council to create
awareness on forthcoming event, noted that the level of indigenous
skill for process equipment design and fabrication was abysmally
low, and that audit reports as conducted by the Council in recent
times had revealed that indigenous manufacturing capacity in the
mineral sector was undertaking by only 75 firms, while 500 were
involved in agro-processing.
The DG said the Council had
embarked on a series of capacity building efforts in recent times,
including the establishment of catalytic model factories to address
this situation and boost indigenous capacities in this regard.
He said that the capacity
programme was aimed at challenging the ingenuity of local engineers
and getting the engineering firms to design, fabricate and install
complete raw materials processing equipment, even as he noted that
building capacity without creating concomitant investments and
linkages between equipment manufacturers and industrialists would
amount to a wasted effort.
He said the Techno-Expo, with the
theme, “Promoting local content manufacturing for sustainable
industrial growth”, would seek to create market for products
of equipment manufacturers.
Prof. Onwualu said that the
Council had held up to seven of these specialized fairs since 1992,
adding that this year’s edition would feature a lot of participation
from both the local society and the international world as well as
opening up a window of investment opportunities in the establishment
of a number of projects for our local commodities.
The DG said other activities
lined for the 4-day fair included the awards for local content
initiated to promote the utilisaton of locally processed raw
materials by Nigerian manufacturers.
He said more than 80 nominations
were received for the awards, out of which 10 nominees would be
selected.
Chuks Ngaha
