Wabote challenges distributors to domicile production
Lays foundation stone for local PPE Factory
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr Simbi Wabote, had demanded the distributors of high end industrial and technical products in the country to explore partnerships that would lead to domesticate production of their goods in Nigeria.
Engr Wabote whose agency is building industrial parks in the country to provide congenial operating environment for manufacturers pointed out that apart from cost reduction and improved value delivery, local production of industrial products including equipments, tools and goods would displace imports, save foreign exchange and generate robust employment opportunity for Nigeria’s teeming youths.
The Oracle Today reports that Nigeria has one of the world’s highest population of people in productive age, posting over 70 percent of youths in a population of about 200 million. However, over 80 percent of the young people are jobless; leading to pervasive poverty, high rate of crime, spikes of angry protests, easy recruitment of insurgents and rising insecurity in the country.
Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote who was in Lagos to lay the foundation stone of a personal protective equipment (PPE) factory being developed by Future Concerns Group in Lekki, emphasized that manufacturing facilities provide opportunities to create jobs for Nigerians.
He charged other representatives of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to emulate Future Concerns Group by developing clear plans to domicile the manufacturing of the items they currently import.
The factory would manufacture products under the trademark of Red Wings, one of the world’s leading producers of top-range PPEs.
The construction of the factory is already underway,and it is expected to be opened in December 2022, starting with the manufacturing of coveralls, before expanding to safety shoes, hard hats, and safety goggles.
In his remarks after touring the company’s existing facilities and the factory under construction, the Executive Secretary commended the management of Future Concerns Group for their decision to domicile the PPE manufacturing facility, rather than perpetually serving as the distributor of imported Red Wings products.
He expressed hope that the factory will start manufacturing coveralls by December 2022 as scheduled and grow systematically to produce other Red Wings PPE products in the country.
He regretted that operators of the Nigerian oil and gas industry prefer to import several equipment components and items that could easily be manufactured in the country, expressing hope that the trend would be corrected with the efforts of committed investors like the founder of Future Concerns Group.
Wabote highlighted the remarkable difference between PPEs used in the oil and gas industry and the ones used in other sectors, hinting that PPEs meant for the oil industry must be fire-resistant as well as meet other specific ISO standards.
He emphasized that Future Concerns’personal protective equipment factory will go beyond the oil and gas industry andserve other sectors that require PPE, like the construction and power industries.
Group Managing Director of Future Concerns Group, Engr. Tony Oguike credited the Executive Secretary and the NCDMB for motivating Nigerian service companies to invest in strategic facilities in the oil and gas industry and ensuring that they get patronizedby operators in the industry.
According to him, “This factory is going to be internationally certified and hopefully, NCDMB will be proud of it and future chief executives and manufacturers will look to it and improvetheir investments and strategies.”
The Future Concerns Group has diversified operations and operates Future Oilfield Services Limited, Future Concerns Safety Centre,MSA Service Centre, and Future Automations, which offer calibration technical services.
Some of the services offered by the group include Fixed Gas Portable Gas,Fall Protection, Engineered System, Emergency Response,Lock Out and Tag Out, Safety Signages, Risk Assessment for sites, Environmental Management, and Pollution Management and Control.
