The Deputy Managing Director, Chemstar Paint Industry Nigeria Limited, Adebayo Paseda, has said the country’s paint industry is still largely dependent on importation of raw materials.He added that although the company has been able to raise its local sourcing capacity for raw materials to about 80 per cent, the figure only represents very low cost materials while the expensive raw materials are still imported.

In his words: “For the paint industry, if you look at local sourcing by weight content of what we do, you can say we are about 80 per cent, but unfortunately, they are low cost materials while the very expensive ones are imported and even the ones that are locally produced still rely on importation. The industry is still heavily import based.”

The worldwide market for paint additives is expected to grow at a CAGR of roughly over the next five years, will reach up to $214 billion in 2024, from over $155 billion in 2019, according to a new GIR (Global Info Research) study.Paseda said this at the company’s yearly health and safety week, tagged, “Safe and healthy environment: Our individual and collective responsibility,” in Lagos.
 
According to him, haulage business has also been a huge challenge to the industry and industries that service the industry.He noted that due to bad road networks and dilapidated roads, trucks are selective about locations of factories to deliver goods, while urging the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, put in place infrastructural facilities to drive growth in the industry.
   
He noted that like every sector of the economy, the paint industry has been affected by the pre and post election activities, but expressed hopes that after the swearing in ceremony, the business community would improve.
  
He pointed out that safety is vital to the daily lives of its workforce, stressing that since the inception of its safety week programme, the company has recorded visible improvement in accident reduction and productivity.
  
“Safety is very important and we want our staff to have such consciousness and this is why we made it a yearly event. We are devoting a week to reflect how important it is. Since we started this, it has been very impactful where we have seen visible improvement and consciousness of our staff towards safety and we have reduced the rate of accident, people are not more aware of their health status and it has also improved the productivity of staff because when you have a healthy workforce, you are sure of improved productivity,” he stated.

Business News By: By Femi Adekoya