The minister for Trade and Industry, Dr. Olusegun Aganga on Saturday paid a working visit to some facilities of Sona Group of Industries at Ota in Ogun State. The minister’s visit came eight days after the official opening ceremony of the Shongai Technologies and Recycling Plant by Sona Group during which the minister was represented by the Acting Managing Director of the Bank Of Industry, Mr. Waheed Olagunju.
The minister was received by the Chairman of Sona Group, Mr. A.K Mirchandani and other Directors of his group at Foods, Agro and Allied Industries Limited, one of the companies within the group. He also took time inspect Shongai Technologies Limited where he lauded the group’s investment in world-class, top-of-the range technology in the packaging and printing solutions that were unveiled to him. Dr. Aganga was particularly elated at the prospects of synergy the company could have with SMEs most of whom he observed produce good products but have serious packaging challenges
Meanwhile the Chief Operating Officer of Sona Group Mr. Ashok Manghnani gave a detailed presentation of the group’s activities in Nigeria and the ECOWAS regoin. The Group’s activities spans food and agro processing, food & beverage manufacturing, industrial gases production, electricity generation and distribution, all types of packaging solutions, including collection and recycling of plastic wastes as well as production of distilled products. The Group’s niche according to its chairman, Mr. Mirchandani is its strategy to always source and develop its materials locally while investing heavily in global best, cutting-edge technology. Companies within the group include Euro Global Foods and Distilleries Limited, Food, Agro and Allied Industries Limited, Shongai Packaging Industry Ltd. Shongai Technologies Limited, Sona Agro Allied Foods Limited, Coronation Power and Gas Limited, Sona Industrial Gases Ltd. Techblow Nigeria Ltd. Coronation Real Estate Development Ltd.
Mirchandani said that “Sona Group are experts at pioneering investments and development of critical, challenging and virgin sectors as well as turn-around experts for ailing companies. We Deploy best-in-class equipment and machinery in every industry we operate and we operate a consistent backward integration policy with investments in local capacity to produce needed raw materials in Nigeria. We also execute a capacity-building policy for host communities and states in which we operate”. The group however lamented the effect of dumping of imported products into Nigeria which he adduced to the extremely low tariff such importers pay for such goods. He noted that government should fine-tune policies to support local industry as no country can move from being poor to being rich without being productive and consuming its own products. He noted that this could cripple local industry.
Appreciating the investments and contributions of the Sona Group and indeed all active players in the manufacturing sector,Dr. Aganga lauded the $ 570 million investment of the company which has thus far created 8,000 direct and indirect employment in the Nigerian industrial sector, saying the government will always complement effort of industrialists due to the employment creation capability of the sector.
“I want to congratulate you on what you are doing. You are already into all the major sectors that are critical to the economy, so we must thank you. We are here to support the food beverages and the tobacco sector of the industry precisely the largest of the subsector and is the fastest growing of all the sectors in the country. It’s a very important sector not only because it’s the fastest growing or contributing more to the GDP, but because of the impact it has with job creation.”
Aganga also urged the group to tap into other areas of opportunity in the sector in which farmers should also be hugely considered. Basing his request on his observation in the company’s presentation, the minister said: “I noticed in your presentation that you have about five businesses in Ghana. I am not against that, I am pro African but I want to know why you are not able to or why you have not set up those businesses in Nigeria; for example the rice mill. We still import a lot of rice in this country…”
“You also told me there that you create indirect and direct employment of 8,000 but you didn’t tell me if that includes farmers. You’ve done well but you should also show the number of farmers you are supporting. That’s very important because most of our people are farmers and this shows the link between what we call private transformation agenda which is about farming and production of raw material, and you as the industrial people using the raw materials. If you are not there, the farmers will not produce.”
Speaking further, the minister challenged the company to look at how it can expand in order to help SMEs in the country with its unique packaging solution. He said: “We complain about lack of packaging. Our SMEs suffer a lot from packaging. I am wondering how you can also support the SMEs. SMEs in the country are about 17.25 million employing about 32 million people and 75 percent of our work force. We have the products in the country, they produce the products but the problem is packaging the label. So that’s the business you can expand to different parts of the country.”
Addressing the challenges highlighted by the Sona Group, Aganga said the complaints will be properly considered stating that the present administration is working earnestly to harmonize important aspects relating to industries especially the area of tariff.
” Your specific comments on tariff, we would look at them. We have tried to do something recently but we notice another disconnect with the tariff because when it was done nine years ago, we were heavily importing and we still have that import dependent mentality. We are working holistically, not just on tariff issues, to provide policy framework for the transformation of our productive sector.
“ But today, we have so many people producing across the value chain which means that we need to realign the to make sure that it is not cheaper importing a finished product than importing the raw material. So the tariff list that came out not too long ago is our first attempt to harmonize, because government’s role and job is to create the right policies and end enabling environment for business to thrive,” he said. Dr. Aganga thereafter promised his hosts that, he will create time for another visit as he will like to personally inspect all the facilities that the Sona Group has put up in Nigeria.
