Effects of Declining Paper Industry on Nigeria Economy and the Way Forward

Nigeria paper industry has not reached the optimum performance level expected of it by planners despite the huge money spent on the establishment of pulp and paper mills in the country before it finally stop production in 1994 due to the high dependence on foreign inputs. This paper examines the problems militating against pulp and paper production in Nigeria and highlights the pathway for promoting optimal pulp and paper capacities locally. Commonly used tree species for pulp and paper production like Gmelina arborea, Pinus caribaea etc, are threatened due to high rate of deforestation and increasing demand of their wood for other economic purposes. Hence, none of the three primary pulp and paper mills established in the country by government within 1960’s to 1970’s performed optimally except The Nigerian Paper Mill, Jebba in the 1980’s as pulp and paper importation reduced drastically as a result of high capacity utilization in the mills. In 1985 and 1986, capacity utilization in Nigerian Paper Mill was 62.3% in 1960’s and 66.17% in the 1960’s. In 1996, The Nigeria Newsprint Manufacturing Company (NNMC), Oku Iboku also stopped production leading to complete dependence on importation of paper and paper products. In 2006, the mills were privatized, and, currently more than 500 billion naira is expended on importation of paper products annually. The only and urgent remedy is to put in place machinery for massive sustainable wood production. Likewise, the use of indigenous wood species and agricultural residues should be encouraged for long fiber pulp production. Efforts should further be made for a stable power supply from national grid to ensure the sustainability of industrial growth most especially in the pulp and paper industries.