By Nneka Chile and Abraham Achirga
LAGOS/ABUJA, March 5 (Reuters) - Two men in grey jumpsuits
brush glue onto rubber soles, while factory machines whir in the
background. Elsewhere, women perched behind industrial sewing
machines attach leather swatches to sturdy-looking men's shoes.
The production line could be anywhere in the world. But
Bertram Dozie, the chief executive of the newly opened Bata
Nigeria shoes plant, hopes this Abuja facility heralds a
renaissance for Nigerian-made shoes.
The factory, which opened in late 2019, can produce more
than 500,000 shoes annually. It employs roughly 120 people.
Bata Nigeria is a franchise tied to Bata, a historic shoe
company based in Switzerland, and present in 70 countries. The
Nigeria franchise has stores in the capital, Abuja, the
southwestern megacity Lagos and southern oil city Port Harcourt.
Bata Nigeria also sells shoes directly to Nigerian schools,
for pupils as part of their uniform, and stocks other stores in
the country.
Nigeria's government hopes companies like Bata can spur the
local manufacturing sector, create jobs and reduce Africa's
biggest economy's reliance on oil sales.
It has tried to stimulate this with its long-running "Made
in Nigeria" agenda, which included placing import restrictions
on shoes in 2007.
The shift to locally-made goods is slowly taking effect. In
2010 Nigeria imported $180 million worth of footwear. By 2018
this figure had fallen to $100 million, mostly from China.
Dozie, surrounded by shoes in one of the company's
showrooms, described the market opportunities for locally-made
mass-produced shoes in Africa's most populous nation of 200
million people as "glaring".
MEMORIES
Bata, once a household name in Nigeria, closed its factory
in the country around 20 years ago. Brand recognition has helped
its return.
It sells everything from strappy heels and protective work
boots for adults to black leather school shoes. Prices range
from 34,000 naira ($111) for leather boots to just under 6,000
naira for plain casual shoes for children.
Dozie, 39, remembers wearing the shoes as a child as part of
his school uniform.
Bata was founded 126 years ago in what is now the Czech
Republic. A local company began marketing Bata in Nigeria in the
1930s, and manufacturing the shoes in the west African country
in the 1960s. Reuters archive footage from 1971 shows a Polish
delegation touring a thriving Bata shoe plant in Lagos.
Nigerian manufacturing still faces serious disadvantages due
to frequent power outages, poor-quality roads and jam-packed
ports that push up the cost of raw material imports.
The absence of reliable supply chains of rubber can also
pose problems.
But Dozie is not alone in hoping that the "Made in Nigeria"
label will become a source of pride for consumers.
Tokunbo Onagoruwa, chief executive of Lagos-based shoemaker
City Cobbler also said attitudes have shifted.
"When I started I wasn't putting my label on the shoes. I
didn't want people to know they were made in Nigeria," Onagoruwa
said, adding "now people wear 'Made in Nigeria' with all pride."
It helps, she added, that a good quality locally-made shoe
costs around £35 ($45), compared with £150 for a high-quality
import.
Dozie said, "Our citizens are working for themselves and
producing these shoes, so people enjoy that story."
($1 = 306.0000 naira)
(Writing by Libby George;
Editing by Alexis Akwagyiram and Alexandra Hudson)