The Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) Zaria, says it is proposing legislation to ban the consumption of animal skin, locally known as ponmo in the country.
The institute fingered ponmo consumption as one of the reasons for the lack of growth in the tannery/leather industry in the country.
Prof. Muhammad Yakubu, Director-General of the institute, made the disclosure on Sunday, September 18, 2022, in Abuja, saying the legislation was necessary to revive the comatose leather industry in the country.
According to him, the habit of eating animals’ skin, which has no nutritional value, should be stopped in order to save the industry and boost the nation’s economy.
“To the best of my knowledge, Nigerians are the only people in the world that overvalue skin as food, after all, ponmo has no nutritional value,” he said.
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The DG said the institute, in collaboration with stakeholders in the industry, would approach the National Assembly and state governments to bring out legislation banning ponmo consumption.
“At a point, there was a motion before the two chambers of the National Assembly, it was debated, but I don`t know how the matter was thrown away,” he said.
According to him, the consumption of animal skin is partly responsible for the present comatose state of tanneries in Nigeria.
“If we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get ponmo to buy and eat,’’ Yakubu said.
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The DG also said that the current National Leather Policy had addressed some fundamental problems of the sector.
“When implemented fully, it would turn around most of the comatose tanneries and ginger greater output in production,’’ he said.
He appealed to stakeholders to support the legislation and the national leather policy to revive the sector.
NAN reports that NILEST was set up to promote leather production as provided in the Agricultural Research Institute Act of 1975.
It conducts research into all aspects of the production and products of leather and the utilization of local tanning materials in the country.