Nigeria Institute of Leather and Science Technology, NILEST on Sunday appealed to the Federal Government for a legal ban on the consumption of animal skin, locally known as ‘pomo,
in the country to restore tanneries.
Muhammad Yakubu, director-general of NILEST), Zaria made the appeal in Abuja.
Yakubu said the action was essential to revive the comatose leather industry in the country which will boost the nation’s economy
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The director-general who said the habit of eating animal skin, which has no nutritional value,
added that the institute, in collaboration with stakeholders in the industry, would approach the national assembly and state governments to bring out legislation banning “pomo” consumption.
“To the best of my knowledge, Nigerians are the only people in the world that overvalue skin as food, after all, Ponmo has no nutritional value,” he said.
At one point, there was a motion before the two chambers of the national assembly, it was debated but I don’t know how the matter was thrown away.”
He said that the consumption of animal skin is partly responsible for the present comatose state of tanneries in Nigeria.
Yakubu also said the current National Leather Policy had addressed some fundamental problems of the sector.
“If we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get pomo to buy and eat,” Yakubu said.
When implemented fully, it would turn around most of the comatose tanneries and ginger greater output in production.”
Yakubu hence appealed to stakeholders to support the legislation and the national leather policy to revive the sector.
The institute researches the production and products of leather and the utilisation of local tanning materials in the country
It was set up to promote leather production under the Agricultural Research Institute Act of 1975.
