The race to revive the leather industry is on and a multifaceted approach is needed to tap into the $300 billion dollars revenue opportunities in the leather value chain.
Presently 88% of animal hides in Nigeria is processed as food, the popular Ponmo while only 12% is available for the leather industry.
The diversification of the economy by promoting industrialization in other sectors can be achieved if more attention is given to the leather value chain. A policy to increase in the proportion of animal hides available for the leather industry is a good place to start the campaign to discourage the consumption of ponmo.
The love for ponmo is depriving us of revenue from foreign investment through trading of leather goods and accessories as well as stifling growth of the leather industry. The leather value chain is enormous with the capacity to generate over 500,000 jobs thereby eliminating unemployment as well as reducing poverty level.
The questions we should ask now are : how can we get more animal hides for leather production? how can we tap into this huge Forex earnings? what can we do to discourage the eating of these hides? what incentives can be given to ponmo processors//dealers so that hides will move out of food chain to leather chain?
These answers will form a pathway for the desired industrialization drive as well as promotion of the leather value chain as discussed at the ponmo summit 2023.
How can the consumption of hides be discouraged? create an awareness about the health implications of ponmo. It is no news that eating ponmo has been linked to cancer, liver and kidney disease e.t.c
Do you know that ponmo is fried using animal fat called tallow?
Do you know the processors reuse these oils severally without discarding ?
Do you know that the particles in the oil from fried ponmo are not drained out,increasing the possibility of poisoning due to bacteria growth?
Studies have shown that animal fat is rich in saturated fat which can cause heart disease as well as obesity. Further studies has shown that oils that foams/bubbles or has changed color should not be reused and that reusing oil results in release of free radicals in the body causing inflammations and cancer. The free radicals released in the body has also been linked to central nervous toxicity
Look at the oil used for frying ponmo.
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| Animal fat . |
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| Oil used for frying the ponmo. |
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| The state of oil at the start of the processing the next day. |
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