Made in Biafra: Aba shoemakers manufacture military boots

Made in Biafra: Aba shoemakers manufacture military boots 

Aba showmakers are currently producing high quality military boots. In Ariaria Market, there are nine clusters where shoes and allied products are manufactured; they are: Imo Avenue, Shoe Plaza (where men shoes are produced), Bakassi (Umueghilegbu) Industrial Market, Old Site, Bag, Belt, Trunk Box and Powerline Clusters.

Powerline cluster alone with over 10, 000 members, according to the President of Powerline Shoe Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (POSMAN), Hon Goodluck Joseph Nmeri, churns out over 300, 000 pairs of various types of shoes, including military boots into several markets within and outside Nigeria every week.

Speaking with Oriental News recently at Ariaria Market, Nmeri said that his members were a bit worried that despite the change mantra of the present administration and the dire need to conserve foreign exchange, the Federal Government was still importing military and para-military boots from other countries when indeed shoe manufacturers in Ariaria were capable of producing those boots.

When asked if the Federal Government or any of its agencies had approached them with regard to the production of boots for the nation’s military, the POSMAN president said: “There had never been anything like that. Federal Government has not given us any attention at all. We had expected as a means of diversifying the economy and encouraging us, they would have given us contracts for the manufacture of military and para-military boots, but instead they import them thereby depleting our foreign exchange the more”.

Made in Biafra: Aba shoemakers manufacture military boots 

He said the whole scenario became more debilitating when it is taken into cognizance that the boots they produce in Aba are of higher quality, yet the Federal Government has continue to turn its back on them and would rather spend millions of dollars importing these products from other countries every year.

Apparently pained by this nonchalance by the Federal Government towards boots his members produce , Nmeri said: “I will take you to where we produce military boots and our own is challenging those imported from China. Instead of booking orders here where we will give them (Federal Government) the best quality they need, they will prefer going to China to buy and when they are used for six months, they will spoil and they will book another order, leaving us behind. We have not in any way received orders from the Federal Government to supply boots to our military and para-military organisation for which we are more than capable to handle at cheaper rate too”.

The POSMAN president challenged the Federal Government to try them and see if they could fail the nation. “We are challenging the Federal Government to ask us today to produce boots for our military men and women, including the para-military and we will do that within a space of time. The Federal Government should as a matter of fact try us and see, if we fail them, they can go their way, but if we satisfy them, they should then understand that we have all it takes to save scarce foreign exchange for the Federal Government”.

Despite the challenges his members are facing, Nmeri said they would not call on the government to outrightly ban importation of shoes due to trade agreement they have entered with other countries, but he suggested for higher tariff paid on imported shoes as to enable local manufacturers compete favourably in terms of price.

“We are calling for higher tariff because we can’t tell them to stop their relationship with any country since we have things we are exporting, but they should first of all have the interest of their citizens at heart, in fact, banning should be the best for us,” he said.

Revealing the efforts made by his association to draw the attention of the government to what they produce, Nmeri said: “We have approached government agencies to see if we could convince them on the need to patronize us, but all to no avail. We went to Abuja trade fair in 2013 and we attended another trade fair in 2014 at Thisday Dome also in Abuja. There we sampled our products; military men were invited, the then Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga was also there, but nothing came out of that effort”.

The POSMAN president reiterated his call on the Federal Government to give them contracts for the manufacture of military and para-military boots as to save foreign exchange and boost the revenue base of the country, insisting that the military boots which could be found in Japan or China would also be found in abundance in Ariaria Market.