Nigeria Technology Minister aims to create 400,000 jobs by producing pencils in 2018

Speaking of the best resolution to resolve Nigerians technological stagnancy and retrogression when compared with the 21st century technology.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, recently announced that the first pencil plant in West Africa would start production in 2018.

 

"We have all the things to produce a pencil, which is used by a large number of people from our young pupils to engineers," Onu told Nigerian newspaper The Daily Trust.

 

"The private sector will come in to do the production and we will see the benefits. When production of pencils begins, Nigerians will be amazed at the multiplier effects. It will create a minimum of 400,000 jobs."

 

The Minister explained that pencils use raw materials that Nigeria possesses in abundance, such as wood, graphite, and rubber. All pencils are currently imported, which has become prohibitively expensive as the Naira struggles.

It is hoped that pencil production can help to revive the manufacturing sector, which has declined since the oil boom of the 1970s.

Pencils can be a logical first step in developing industrial capacity, believes Professor of Economics Stephen Onyeiwu of Allegheny College.

 

"Pencils use simple, mature technology and raw materials that can be sourced domestically," says Onyeiwu. "The size of the market is huge, and we could export to other African countries."

 

The Professor believes that success with pencils could pave the way for more sophisticated production. Economic analysts Mckinsey predict Nigerian manufacturing has the potential to deliver output of $144 billion a year by 2030, up from $35 billion in 2013.

 

Reaction to the pencil project has been largely negative, with many social media users noting the contrast with neighboring Uganda's launch of a solar-powered bus.

One scathing article by Nigerian journalist Emmanuel Uchenna Ugwu attacked the scheme as a "dubious joke."

 

"It is a pity that Nigeria is fantasizing about the made-in-Nigeria pencil in this age," the author wrote. "That the government of Nigeria is projecting the coming pencil as a sort of technological revolution shows that Nigeria has recorded satisfactory success only in insulting and betraying its potential."