Nigeria, missing out in the $350 billion global paper industry

From the print media to Nigeria’s hundreds of thousands of schools, millions of offices, and millions of tons of toiletries, to name a few, Nigeria’s demand for paper is huge. But like many once thriving industries that failed to keep up to pace, inadequate local production of paper creates a deep void, left to be filled with imported paper.

There are various statistics on Nigeria’s actual dependency on imported paper. The National Bureau of Statistics’ foreign trade report for the third quarter of 2021 said Nigeria spent N410 billion on importations of paper-making material, paper and paperboard articles.

On the other hand, Nigeria’s imported paper and paperboard, articles of pulp, paper, and board were US$688.06 million in 2021, according to Trading Economic data.

Chief executive officer, FAE Limited, and chairman, of Printing and Publishing Group, LCCI, Princess Funmilayo Bakare Okeowo, says the figures above are underestimations.

She told Nairametrics that Nigeria imports about 4 million metric tonnes of paper annually, at the rate of between $1,300 and $1,400. That means Nigeria imports at least $5.2 billion worth of paper annually.

On his part, the president/chairman of the council, Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria (CIPPON), Olugbemi Malomo stated in an interview, that every year Nigeria imports paper to the tune of N3 trillion. This is happening as Nigeria is suffering an acute foreign exchange crisis.

But the paper deficit needn’t be what it is. Nigeria does have what it takes to become not only self-sufficient in paper production but also to earn forex from it by exportation.

It is interesting to note that the global paper industry is valued at over $350 billion and projected to rise to $370 billion by 2029 on the back of rising population, educational requirements, sustainability goals, etc.

Had Nigeria sustained the development of the paper industry with the vigor that it approached it in the 1970s and 80s (see Nigeria’s paper history below), the situation where Nigeria spends trillions of naira annually to import more than 91% of her paper needs would be the reverse today, with added benefits such as retained jobs in the country.

What Experts are saying

Industry stakeholders have identified inimical government policies among other challenges as the bane of the paper industry in Nigeria.

For example, Okeowo told Nairametrics that the demand for paper will always be there. She stated that Nigeria only produces brown paper, which constitutes merely 10% of her paper demand, used mainly by manufacturers to package goods.

The rest of the country’s demand, 90%, which is white paper, is imported. She said the potential of Nigeria’s paper & pulp, printing, publishing, and packaging industry is significantly underutilized with adverse impact on economic growth and development.

She said challenges such as collapsed infrastructure, foreign exchange shortage, naira depreciation, the rising cost of raw materials, poor research efforts, policy-related issues, etc. are major problems bedeviling the industry. She called for the federal government’s intervention to save the industry by creating enabling environment to woo foreign investors to resuscitate the industry.

As if to buttress that point, Malomo cited inconsistencies and conflicts in government policies. He said, “If you ask someone to come and start paper manufacturing in Nigeria, knowing that paper production is capital intensive, the environment must be enabled for investors to make gains from their investment. So, the stakeholders and government need to sit together and formulate policies that will regulate and ensure investors in paper manufacturing find a return on their investment in Nigeria.”

Citing under-capacity and huge paper production deficit, he said, “The full capacity of the three paper mills is not up to 200,000 metric tons, and at the moment, our demand for paper is more than three million metric tons. This means if the paper mills are revived, they will still not solve our problem. So, we should be thinking of something more futuristic and something that would really bring relief and reprieve to the paper industry.”

Citing under-capacity and huge paper production deficit, he said, “The full capacity of the three paper mills is not up to 200,000 metric tons, and at the moment, our demand for paper is more than three million metric tons. This means if the paper mills are revived, they will still not solve our problem. So, we should be thinking of something more futuristic and something that would really bring relief and reprieve to the paper industry.”

Further revealing the void in the local industry, Malomo said, “When you are producing paper, you can produce from primary or secondary materials. I can tell you authoritatively that there is no manufacturer producing from primary materials. What they are doing is more like recycling and, with due respect to them, what they are producing cannot meet one percent of our demand.

On raw materials, the director-general of, Raw Material Research Development Council, Professor Hussaini D. Ibrahim said, the major reason for the failure of the investments in the country’s paper industry had been predominantly attributed to the absence of long fibre plant resources in the Nigerian forests, which necessitated outrageous dependence on imported long fibre pulp.
The second factor militating against the development of the paper industry is the industry’s absolute dependence on imported chemicals.
However, Okeowo said Nigeria has raw materials for the production of paper. Citing her 40 years of experience in the paper industry, she said the bamboo tree is a good raw material for paper, adding that the industry needs investors to come in with the right machinery to revive the industry, which partially depends on enabling the environment and right government policies.

Like other industries that are comatose or gone under outright, apart from unfriendly policies, there is definitely the issue of lack of power, which has made many of Nigeria’s industries uncompetitive.

It, therefore, begs the question: What would Nigeria be like if there were adequate power supply and the right policies to lift and keep alive the trillions of naira paper industry, the garment industry, and auto, to name but a few?

A thriving paper industry would have added value to the agriculture sector as trees are the raw materials for paper.

A lesson from two global industry leaders

According to Statista, as of April 2022, the production volume of processed paper and cardboard in China, the world’s leading producer, was about 11.05 million metric tons.

The output has remained relatively stable over the observed, it was able to export $21.8 billion worth of paper in 2021.

This, however, was not as much as the $22.8 billion exported by Germany, the world’s leading exporter of the product.

Note that the combined value of the two country’s exports of $44.6 billion is equivalent to N19.4 trillion. This amount is only about a trillion short of the N20.5 trillion budgeted for the whole of Nigeria for 2023.

The export values above should give a sense of what Nigeria is missing out on by allowing its paper potential lay fallow.

Taking the paper industry seriously would also help boost the country’s non-oil export, which was a mere $2.59 billion for the first half of 2022.

Perspective

Paper is a necessity in every modern economy. It, therefore, constitutes a huge industry globally. As a matter of fact, the global paper industry is valued at $360 billion and projected to rise to $370 billion by 2029 on the back of rising population, educational requirements, sustainability goals, etc.

Due to environmental degradation caused by the use of plastics, Kenya, the first African country to make it illegal to use plastics to package goods, along with a host of occidental and oriental nations use paper in the packaging of food and other goods.

Brief history of Nigeria’s paper industry

Not long after the country’s independence, as part of its strategic plan for pulp and paper production for domestic and export markets, the Nigerian government commissioned the Nigeria Paper Mill, Jebba, Kwara State, in 1969; Iwopin Pulp and Paper Company (IPPC), Ogun State in 1975 and Nigeria Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC) in Oku-Iboku, Akwa Ibom in 1986.

The federal government’s plan was for the three pulp and paper mills to provide thousands of tonnes of different papers every year.

As of 1985, the Jebba mill was producing 65, 000 tonnes of Kraft paper, liner and chipboards, sack kraft, and corrugated cartons per annum.

The IPPC, which was built to produce 38,000 metric tonnes of bleached short fibres and 65, 000 metric tonnes of fine writing, and printing papers annually, performed above 96 percent, data from the Bureau of Public Enterprises show.

Likewise, the NNMC, which had an installed capacity of 100,000 metric tonnes of newsprint per annum, produced an average of 25,440.5 metric tonnes between 1988 and 1992.

The end products were used for periodicals, magazines, journals, exercise books, textbooks, writing papers, duplicating papers, photocopying papers, etc.
And the objective of building the mills was fairly successful. For example, during its heydays, the NNMC was producing international standard newsprint, some of which were exported to the United States of America, Canada, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and many other countries.

Also, as part of the objectives, the mill reduced Nigeria’s importation of newsprint to 12.5 percent in 1987. It is noteworthy that the domestic demand for newsprint in 1987 was much more than it is today, considering the fact that Nigeria’s evolving digital economy reduces the need for paper. By 2002, the three mills had stopped production.