Nigeria’s Leather Exports Hit $800m

The Director-General, Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) Zaria, Prof. Muhammad Yakubu, said Nigeria’s total exports of leather products hit $800 million this year.

Yakubu stated this in an interview on Sunday in Abuja.

He said that by 2018 to 2019, the exports of Nigerian leather products were about 800 million dollars but later declined in 2020 due to COVID- 19 epidemic to $650.

“The national leather policy proposes that by the year 2025, revenue from the leather products exports will be around $1 billion,’’ Yakubu said.

According to him, by the figure, Nigeria had already crossed half of $650 million to $800 million dollars this year.

The D-G said that the total trade of the leather products was presently between $300 and $400 billion globally.

He said that out of this figure, Nigeria could account for 15 to 20 per cent to hit $20 billion by 2025.

Yakubu said, ”every week, more than 20,000 pairs of shoes and different high quality leather materials were exported ton African, Asian and European countries from South- East, South- West and Northern parts of Nigeria.

“You can imagine how much we are talking about in a month or a year.’’

Yakubu, however, said the high cost of imported processing materials was responsible for the spike in the prices of most Nigerian leather products compared to the foreign ones.