Borno is one of the oldest States in Nigeria; it is situated in the North-East geo-political region and has a lot of viable industries capable of employing thousands of job seekers in the State. Most of these industries when fully put into use will benefit many States and neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon. Amongst the many viable industries in the state is BOPLAS industry situated along Baga Road about 8 Kilometers from the heart of the state capital.
Long before the crises of Boko Haram in the state, lack of electricity supply has crippled most of the industries. Several administrations have promises to resuscitate most of the industries but lack of political will was said to have also been the bottle that fails to grease their will to progress in that direction. As the state is about stabilizing politically to address the challenges of power supply as well as political bottle necks, the challenges of insecurity since the beginning of Boko Haram crises in 2009 appeared to have taken the state 20 years back in its attempts towards ensuring industrial sustainability.
Speaking in an interview with the General Manager Borno State Plastic Industries (BOPLAS) in Maiduguri, Engineer Baba Gana Taha said the company which was established in 2001 under the companies and Allied Matters Acts of 1990 as Limited Liability Company, aimed basically to create employment opportunities thereby creating wealth as well as boost socio-economic activities of the state. According to him, If the organization is properly funded the economic base of the state would be boosted and unemployment among the youth would be reduce to the bearest minimum and hoping that the administration of Governor Kashim Shettima despite the security challenges would inject more money for production capacity of the company towards its resuscitation.
Taha said the BOPLAS industries is operation at forty percent capacity due to lack of funds and obsolete machines as every industry working for five to ten years require complete overhaul of machines. He also regretted that most of the professional staff have left for Kano, Lagos and other states due to prevailing security challenging bedeviling the state.
“The industry produces, plastic product such as kettle, buckets and bags among others where dealers pay for the products. from the on set of establishing the BOPLAS many dealers and petty traders had high hopes of acquiring the made in Borno Plastic Production but yet it is not so as successive government could not pay due attention to revive the company. The company is providing quality products that are suitable for national and international market. Statistic also reveal that over four hundred thousand business men and women have registrar their willingness to patronize BOPLAS products while businessmen from the neighboring states, Chad, Niger and Cameroon are also in dear need of partnering with the state owned industries.
We hope that the Borno State Government and businessmen and women would join hands together to invest heavily so as to generate revenue to the State and boost the economic base of the business in the State. And since the material are required in Kano State it is a challenge to Borno State Government to provide enough fund to such a viable industries which would be beneficial to many people both economically, and otherwise. I want to believe that as a visionary leader, Governor Kashim Shettima should be able to turn thongs around for the better in the hope that, the security situation bedeviling the state would be history before the end of this year.” he said.
The GM also suggest that, a company as BOPLAS, when put into proper use should also be an attraction centre where visitors ( students) particularly can come for excution and other state governors particularly in the northeast can also have the opportunity of emulating the state to add value to the economy of their states. He also said, rich Borno indigenes should also be encouraged to invest in such companies to salvage the state economically by giving employment to youths as well as boost their business empire as wellas their fortunes in the state.
Modu Aji Student of the Department of Mass Communication, 400 Level, University of Maiduguri. ajimodu14@gmail.com
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