Ponmo: NILEST Moves to Discourage Consumption, Seeks Growth of Leather Industry

The Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) has said it is working to discourage the consumption of animal skin (ponmo), “which has no nutritional value”, to save the leather industry and improve the economy of the country. The Director-General, NILEST in Samaru, Zaria, Professor Muhammad Yakubu, disclosed this on Sunday in Abuja. Yakubu informed that the institute was proposing legislation to ban the consumption of animal skin in the country. According to him, the legislation was required to revive the nation’s deadlocked leather sector. He said, “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.” The DG noted that the institute would work with stakeholders to approach the National Assembly and state legislatures to consider legislation outlawing the consumption of animal skin in the country. “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 added. Yakubu blamed the comatose state of the tanning industry in Nigeria partly on the consumption of animal skin. “If we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get ponmo to buy and eat,’’ he pointed out. Also, the DG observed that the current National Leather Policy had addressed some fundamental problems of the sector. “When implemented fully, it would turn around most of the comatose tanneries and catalyse greater output in production.’’ Yakubu, therefore, appealed to relevant stakeholders to support the legislation as well as the national leather policy to revive the industry.