By our correspondent
New Materials Nigeria Company, a building material company recently commissioned in Abuja will save Nigeria a whopping sum of $100m in foreign exchange when fully operational, its Managing Director, Mr. Jackie Dai Hui has said.
Briefing newsmen on the advantages of establishing the company in Nigeria, Mr. Jackie said it is estimated that when the company which produces Fiber Cement Board reaches its peak of about five million square meters annually; it would help the federal government save $100m in foreign exchange.
He explained that if the New Materials Nigeria Company succeeds, it will, within 10 years invest in more companies and product lines especially in the area of production of Gypsum and Solar panels for alternative power generation.
Speaking further, the Managing Director said that so far, over $50 million has been invested in the New Materials Nigeria Company explaining that in no distant time, it will grow its investment in Nigeria by establishing a branch in Lagos.
According to him, the establishment of the New Materials Nigeria Company has gone a long way to provide employment to 150 Nigerians both at senior and junior levels who he said are also being trained in various skills.
“We have management and junior staff. Our Human Resource Manager is Nigerian; our Office Manager is a Nigerian and our Shift Leader also is a Nigerian.
“These are top management positions. We train Nigerians to run the company; we are transferring technology to those who are brilliant. Today you may see some Chinese but next time you come you won’t see Chinese, you will only see Nigerians here.
“We want to share. Not like other foreign companies where all the top management staff are foreigners and Nigerians left to do the labour work. We have moved beyond that.
“We have to treat Nigerians who have the desire to work with our company well and encourage them to build a career. We have administrators, we have technicians, we have general labour, we have managers and we have shift leaders.
“This is just the beginning, later we will give them more platforms, maybe one day when we have branches in Kano, ECOWAS countries like Cameroun; we can send Nigerians there to be directors. This is what we do. We grow together for a shared future. Right now, we have up to 150 staff but less than 20 are Chinese, the others are Nigerians.
“So for this factory, we are not only like a factory or company, we are also like a university. We sum it as a work chance or skill platform for local persons. We can train people. In a year, we can train a number of people that would contribute to the building of this great country.
“We can increase our company’s presence in Nigeria because we can source all our raw materials in Nigeria. And also we can make analysis for Nigeria building material markets. So, this product is new material but it has more advantages and so we have confidence. At the end of this year I am sure we will see good results.
“Let me add that the first person to come to Nigeria from our company didn’t know what Fiber Cement Board was, but now we all know and we all love the product. I have confidence in Nigeria. As Eric, the Deputy Managing Director said, we want to work with universities to do some research about our product. We can share the platform for people to learn more in Universities and Polytechnics; we can share knowledge”, Mr. Jackie added.
On Corporate Social Responsibility, he said the company has built roads for the host communities, built boreholes to help them have access to clean water; and rehabilitated some schools and roofing sheets for some of their buildings.
