By Vivian Onyebukwa
A three-day inaugural edition of the Made In Nigeria Cosmetics and Beauty Products Expo, held in Lagos, has ended in Lagos, with the call to agencies of government, to help in the development of the industry.
The event brought together, government agencies, cosmetics and beauty communities and national business associations together, as they collaborated with MINCE International Concept Ltd for this Expo.
They include the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), NERC, NICERT, NEXIM, SMEDAN, National Association of Nigerian Traders etc.
According to the board Chairman of MINCE International Concept Ltd, Barr. Kola Awe, the Expo is organised to identify export-ready cosmetics and beauty products in Nigeria and expose them to international markets in Africa and beyond. It was also to identify, prepare, assist and scale up MSME cosmetics and beauty products for international market, and help manufacturers gain access to technical interventions in the area of certifications, quality and standards during the Expo. The idea was also meant to connect manufacturers to mainstream retail outlets; give manufacturers the opportunity to showcase their made in Nigeria cosmetics and beauty products to a large number of consumers and distributors for huge sales opportunities.
“One of the reasons why we are putting this together is visibility and sales for made in Nigeria products. Like you know, MINCE Concept international limited is positioned to support Small and Medium Scale businesses to export their products, but then in our product analysis, we find out that there are lots of deficiencies in the system and we find out that if these deficiencies are not taken care of, the cosmetic industry, which is a very huge market in Africa and in the continent, Nigeria manufacturers may not be able to play in that eco- system. That is the reason we say, let us start creating a strategic intervention to support cosmetic industry. Expo is part of the strategic intervention and what do we want to achieve, we want to achieve sales”.
Awe went further to explain why they are concentrating on visibility because with the way the exchange rate is going, there will be a time imported cosmetics are going to be very expensive and people will be looking back to see if there are local cosmetics that they can use to replace.
Talking about sales, he mentioned finance as one of the major problems with SMEs. “If we can bring them here and they can improve on themselves, they will be able to have finance to be able to deploy back in to their businesses. These are the two strong reasons we are organising the expo and we have decided that we are going to do it yearly. As we roll out our intervention, then the products development, intervention to access to market, and finance, then we continue to also create the visibility and made in Nigeria cosmetics products. We have gone round the stands and we have seen that most of these products can compete internationally in terms of packaging and labelling. You will be shocked that some of them do not have NAFDAC number, because it is going to cost them two or three hundred thousand Naira to get their NAFDAC number. They will prefer to pump the money in to their businesses. We at MINCE have decided that we are going to put up share facility centre where they can come and produce and use the platform to get NAFDAC number. If we can support them in that way, we will be talking about cosmetics export, many of them like to advertise their products in Instagram and with Instagram they will not be able to scale up”.
Awe believed that in terms of policies that the government can map out to encourage the small scale industry in the country, the governance has its own challenges. “The organised private sectors has their own challenges. What I think is the missing point is for both to articulate their challenges in such a way that government will come to the reality in practical terms. Time has gone when the government will come up with policies without been practical. Some times in the organised private sector, the president might not be a manufacturer. The president may be an advocate, someone who is not in the manufacturing business”.
According to him, the banks and NAFDAC represented in the expo, is part of the technical interventions. “NAFDAC has given us competent staff that can listen to them to know where their challenges are and try to understand their basic challenges, while MINCE is to resolve the issues that NAFDAC is talking about.
Nigeria Export Promotion CounciL (NEPC) South West Zone Director, Samuel Oyeyipo, represented the Executive Director, Dr Ezra Yakusak, at the occasion.
He said they have concluded the implementation of export extension programme to help NEPC open a route in Egypt, Namibia, to create marketing access of Nigerian product. He promised that his organisation shall continue to partner with the private especially on the issue of Nigerian product.
MD Nigeria Export Bank, (NEXIM), Abba Bello, expressed the bank’s support of the exhibition. “NEXIM is an export develop bank promoting non export product. We provide the fund you need to package the market. What we are doing can create jobs for the teeming youths. We support women empowerment. A lot of the exhibitors are women. This is an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to come forward and benefit from the facility. We can work with you to see how we can work out the collateral requirement. You can use your gold for collateral to access fund from the bank. NEXIM is ready to fund your markets, package them and send out for export”, he assured.
Also, the Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Professor Mojisola Adeyeye, was represented by Ebele Anto, Deputy Director in charge of Cosmetics Manufacturing. She
commended the organisers for the initiative especially now that the country is facing economic crunch, saying it is a way to move the country forward especially now that people are leaving the country. “Food, drug, cosmetics are under the supervision of NAFDAC. So NAFDAC has put up strategies to make business easy for them”, she said.
President of Hairdresser, Barbers and Cosmetologists Association, Yomi Oluronkure, who attended the event, advised the manufacturers to do good packaging, and get NAFDAC registration. He equally noted that they need financial support and good government policy and urged the government to support them. . “They need money to start the business and some of them don’t have collateral. Government should support them financially and favourable policy to support them.
Ambassador of Made in Nigeria product, Amaka Ani, an actress, lauded the organisers for their initiative.