Expert Makes Case For Raw Materials Dev

Worried over the dwindling industrial development in the country, the Rivers State Coordinator of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) Mrs. Felicia Chilaka has called for the resuscitation of Introductory Technology in Secondary Schools.

Speaking in an exclusive chat with The Tide last Wednesday, Mrs. Chilaka also asserted that reviving the Junior Engineers, Technicians and scientists (JETS) club in Schools would boost raw material development in the country.

In her opinion, a curriculum development that would encourage young students in both secondary and primary schools to be innovative in the areas of science and arts would spur students to create new things, noting that, “by the time they finish their Senior Secondary Schools they would be thinking of developing something.”

The Rivers RMRDC Coordinator stressed that agriculture is the base for any raw materials development across the world and therefore tasked the state government to fund agriculture based industries like the Rison Palm and the Delta Rubber Company.

She said, “Since ever they revived Pabod Breweries you can see the kind of economic development in that sector. All these industries depend on raw materials and raw materials come from agro-based industries.”

Aside encouraging young students to be creative she submitted that the state government can kick-start raw materials development through economic clusters by identifying  special raw materials common in some parts of the state.

By identifying these raw materials in the rural areas she explained that government can provide machinery to support in the processing and packaging to boost local economy.

Mrs. Chilaka observed that the state was replete with lots of palm produce, cassava and fish which can be processed, packaged and marketed, as an alternative economic base and urged government to exploit them.

Mary Chinda