Poor policy implementation hinders rubber plantation growth in Nigeria

Nigerian-rubber-farmer

The National Rubber Association of Nigeria (NRAN), Saturday, said poor implementation of government policies, over the years, has hindered the growth of rubber plantation and related industries.

President of NRAN, Emmanuel Bassey, stated this at the first national conference of the group in Benin City, Edo state. He said production of natural rubber in the country has dwindled due to neglect and “low capacity utilisation of primary processing factories, underfunding of research, poor implementation of government policies and lack of infrastructure.

He said the level of conversion of natural rubber into finished products in the country is not more than 15 per cent, adding that “a major drawback of research in Nigeria is inadequate and irregular funding. The federal government has introduced several support programmes that ended abruptly.

“Notable among these is the presidential initiative on rubber, which had a support plan of over a decade but was supported for only one year. Poor infrastructure shoots up overhead cost resulting in high cost of production and low profit margin”.

He said Nigeria rubber would not be discounted in the international market if the Standard Nigeria Rubber document were implemented.