Nigerian regional government to open leather centre

Producing leather in Delta State is an attempt to reduce local unemployment.

The Delta State government in Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to construct a training and leather production centre in the city of Asaba, that will provide jobs for more than 2,000 youths.

According to Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan, governor of Delta State, this footwear and leatherwear training centre would help to address the challenging level of unemployment in the state. He expressed that the authorities are committed to the project, and ready to use the region’s oil wealth to train the people and move the economy away from oil. Dr Uduaghan added that the government’s strategy is to increase youth employment by creating industries that will, in turn, provide jobs.

A training and production facility will be built on 26,000 square metres of land, and the state government has said it will provide security for the people working at the facility. The UNIDO will help to develop what it calls ‘a huge potential in the leather industry’. The organisation intends to form partnerships with foreign designers to ensure that the centre’s trainees are exposed to the best technique in the world, with the aim of helping them to produce shoes and leathergoods that will compete with products from anywhere in the world.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 4 of the April 2013 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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