He was speaking on the sidelines of a capacity building and study tour of the Portuguese leather sector. Yakubu said they want to identify ways to attract the Portuguese leather sector to set up manufacturing units in Nigeria.

Nigeria expects to earn about $1 billion from the export of leather products by 2025—a target proposed by the National Leather Policy, according to Mohammed Yakubu, chief executive officer and director general of the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology. Nigeria’s total exports of leather products have reached $800 million this year, he said.

The Nigerian delegates visited the Centro Tecnologico Do Calcado De Portugal (CTCP), or the Footwear Technology Centre of Portugal, its laboratory and workshop facilities, some leather organisations and tanneries in Porto, a Nigerian newspaper reported.

They held business meetings with the Portuguese footwear components and leather goods manufacturers association (APPICAPS) and interacted with some of their machine suppliers.

The high cost of imported processing materials was responsible for the rise in prices of most Nigerian leather products relative to foreign ones, the director general added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)