Group Cautions Against Home Furniture Importation

A group under the aegis of Professional Furniture Makers Association, in Port Harcourt has appealed to the Federal Government to ban the importation of home furniture and some roofing  and ceiling material used for building construction.

The leader of the group, Mr Anthony Iwedi, in an interrection with The Tide in Port Harcourt said that importation of furniture had led to the closure of many companies in Nigeria.

He said that the importation of both home and office furniture into the country has rendered a large number of his members jobless.

Iwedi said “To revive the moribund Manufacturing companies and to reduce our unemployment rate requires immediate ban on importation of furniture and dangerous roofing and ceiling materials”.

“The high rate of imported doors, keys, plywood, roofing materials, among others has drastically reduced patronage of the locally produced ones, and if nothing is done to stop this trend, I can assure you that in the next 10 years, there will be nothing like carpentry in this country”, he said.

According to him, most of the imported building products in Nigerian markets are even of lower quality than the locally produced ones.

The association therefore called on the Federal Government to come up with a workable policy that will save the furniture and carpentry business in the country, so as to pressure the job of those engaged in the business.

Corlins Walter