The Senate on Tuesday made a case for the reduction of import duty on newsprint as well as the establishment of paper mills in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
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This followed a motion by Senator Stephen Ekpeyong on the need to revive the moribund paper mills in Nigeria.
The upper chamber decried the skyrocketing cost of newsprint in the country.
It called on the Chartered Institute of Professional Printers of Nigeria and the Nigeria Customs Service to review duty on importation of paper as raw materials and published books into the country and makes it favourable to print locally in Nigeria.
The Senate also directed its committee on Privatization to investigate the activities and operations of the existing Mills in the country.
It urged the Federal Government to establish Federal Paper Mills in each geopolitical zones of the country to boost paper production, economic growth, and employment opportunities in the country.
Ekpeyong had in his lead debate insisted that the sector had gone moribund since its privatization, leaving the country with another huge income deficit.
He said the companies that bought the mills have either abandoned them or not been able to revive them making the country to depend on imported papers.
He expressed worry that the recent statistics released by the Raw Material Research and Development Council indicated that Nigeria lost over N800bn annually to paper importation.
He also said the Printers Association of Nigeria claimed that its members spend $1trn annually to import over one million metric tons of paper at the cost of $1,000 per tones.
He recalled that in the past paper Mills had a work force of over 300,000 people and an investment worth over N100billion before the privatization policy of the Federal Government.
He expressed concern that the unhealthy state of the printing industry was adversely affecting the education sector.
He noted that statistics show that over 100 million books are required yearly in the country for the 20 million students in schools.
He said by the National Book Policy, five books are the requirement set per pupil with the 75 per cent of the books printed outside the country.
According to him, this was because printers make more money printing abroad because the duty on importation of published books is zero per cent while importation of paper, as raw materials into the country is up to 30 per cent.
He further expressed worry that the result of the non-performance of the Paper Mills was the missed opportunity for job creation in the sector.
He said, “If these Paper Mills are working, thousands of Nigerians would be actively employed working in these mills while books and paper needed by students would have been cheaper since they are produced locally.
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, mandated its Committee on Privatisation to work on the motion and report back to the chamber in four weeks.
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