MANUFACTURING OF RAW MATERIALS PROCESSING

EQUIPMENT AND MACHINERY IN NIGERIA

BY

A.P. Onwualu, (Mrs.) I. O. Ejuya and Mr. I. I.Ismail

Raw Material Research and Development Council, Abuja.

ABSTRACT

The paper discussed the status of equipment and machinery for processing raw materials in

Nigeria, in terms of type/ category of equipment and machinery manufacturers and type of

equipment and machinery fabricated.

The challenges for the emergence of raw materials processing equipment and machinery

manufacturing industry include: engineering infrastructure problems, technical skill and

training facilities, basic raw materials, low patronage/ market, inadequate protection, power

supply, lack of standardized parts and funding/ credit facility. The way forward for overcoming

the challenges include: developing technical education and training facilities, upgrade of

technological capabilities of equipment and machinery manufacturers, standardization of unit

size and parts, funding, patronage, infrastructure and government policies.

1. INTRODUCTION of such equipment based on highly

developed science and engineering
Globally, the success of any nations
infrastructure capabilities. The Asian
industrialization drive depends on the ability
Tigers including India and China which are
to mass produce high quality machinery and
now successfully industrializing and
equipment for the conversion of natural
attaining self sufficiency in goods
resources to goods and services. The
production are those that have pursued the
sustenance of such industrialization to a
policy on design and manufacture of most of
large extent depends on the manufacturing

19 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

their capital equipment and machinery with ways forward as strategies for the
very strong political will. attainment of vision 20/2020.

Nigeria will continue to produce at 2. STATUS OF THE EQUIPMENT

subsistence level and may never achieve the AND MACHINERY
output surplus that is essential for the MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY IN
general improvement in the living standards NIGERIA
of its people without the development of the
2.1 Type/Category of Equipment and
local capability in the production of plants,
Machinery Manufacturers;
machinery processing equipment and the
adoption of modern production techniques.
The nation wide survey conducted by
If Nigeria is to eradicate poverty and move
RMRDC in 2002 showed that there were
along the road of economic viability
over 200 individual enterprises engaged in
especially to be among the world economic
equipment manufacturing in Nigeria. Four
giants (20 most industrialized nations) in
categories of manufacturers have been
2020, she must industrialize by producing
recognized namely established, cottage,
basic capital goods locally.
roadside and Research & Development
Institutions.
In the light of the Vision 2020, the role of
fabricators in the production of processing
a) Established Manufacturers;
equipment and machinery for agricultural
This class of manufacturers belongs to the
and mineral raw materials cannot be over
medium and large scale engineering
emphasized, as the activities in this sector
enterprises equipped with standard
are primarily responsible for varieties of
engineering facilities and adapting standard
products for both human consumption and
engineering procedures in their operations.
utilization.
They have capacities to produce high quality
This paper therefore, aims at dealing with
process equipment and machinery. This
the current situation in the sector, the
constitutes about 9.01% of the machine
challenges facing the evolution of a viable
fabricators. Examples are Dorman Long
plant and equipment manufacturing industry
Engineering Ltd, Addis Engineering and
in Nigeria, government interventions and the
Boskel Engineering Limited etc

20 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

 industry. Their capabilities seem limited due
b) Cottage Level Manufacturers;
to inadequate funding.
This class of manufacturers has limited
engineering facilities and they belong to the 2.2 Technical skill
micro/small scaleengineering enterprises,
A cursory appraisal of the work force
based on the skill of the operators and the
showed clearly that very few of the
capital outlay. This category of fabricators
operators have adequate engineering
has the capacity to produce fairly large
training. The vast majority are, at best,
number of equipment and machinery. About
artisans/craftsmen who started as
41.3% of Nigerian fabricators belong to this
apprentices to uncertified masters and later
class.
graduate to set up their own workshops.
c) Road side manufacturers; The sector is actively controlled by non-
They constitute about 49.30% of the professionals.
organizations in the machinery
2.3 Workshop Equipment/Tools
manufacturing sub- sector. Most of them
operates under makeshift small sheds,
Most of the workshops are inadequately
handles most of their materials manually and
equipped, as a result of which production
carry out gas and arc welding operations.
processes were performed using improvised
Majority of them do not have sufficient
methods or inappropriate tools, thereby
basic workshop tools and they operate
affecting the quality of the products.
without consideration for engineering
procedures. 2.4 Capacity Utilization

d) R&D Institutions; Production is usually between 10-30% of

These are mainly government agencies and installed capacity. Due to low patronage
higher institutions of learning involved in most of the fabricators produce only on
the research and development of equipment request.
and machinery. They have better equipped
workshops than most of the small and 2.5 Types of Equipment and
medium scale enterprises in the sub sector Machinery Fabricated /Products
and have the most skilled man power in the

21 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

The type and quantity of the equipment R&D activities are also unevenly distributed
manufactured varies according to demand. with dryer (12), mill (11), sieve/sifter (13)
However, much of the existing and thresher (10) sharing among the 4-items
manufacturing activity is concentrated on a rarely 40% of the total R&D activity.
few simple items and the number of
2.6 Distribution of
manufacturers engaged in the production of
Fabricators/Clusters in Nigeria
some important equipment is shown against
the equipment: mills/grinding machine
Equipment and machinery manufacturing
(216), manually operated press for
industry are unevenly spread across the
dewatering cassava mash or extracting oil
nation. There are over 276 fabricators
from oil palm fruit pulp (141), cracker for
identified in Nigeria, fig. 1 shows the
palm kernels (106), grater/ gari fryer (164),
location of large scale equipments and
and maize shellers (42). These items share
machinery manufacturer in Nigeria.
among them about 60% of the aggregate
manufacturing activity in the sector judged
on the basis of participating enterprises.

Fig.1: Map of Nigeria showing states with large (established) and medium scale
equipment and machinery manufacturer.

22 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

3.0 EQUIPMENTS AND develop new production systems and
MACHINERY MANUFACTURING IN
components.
EMERGING ECONOMIC

This section presents the trend in the India firms present a full spectrum of
manufacture of process equipment in technological capabilities while there are
emerging economies of India and Korea and few firms close to the international frontier
measures adopted to strengthen the sector. in terms of product design capability and
process technology , technological
3.1 Equipment and Machinery
capabilities of most players are extremely
Manufacturing in India
limited due to growing technological
In India, technological capabilities can best
obsolescence, inferior quality , limited
be described in terms of three levels. The
range and high costs. Most of the
basic level involves the ability to operate
manufacturing firms appear to be stuck at
and maintain a new production plant based
the basic or intermediate level of
on imported technology. The intermediate
technological capabilities. Though Indian
level consists of the ability to duplicate and
manufacturing industry has mastered
adapt the design for an imported plant and
standard techniques, it has remained
technique elsewhere in the country or
dependent for highly expensive and
abroad, while an advanced level involves a
complicated technologies.
capability to undertake new designs and

Table 2: Sectoral Technology Capability

Source: www.unido.org
Indian Manufacturing
Industry Technology
status and prospects

23 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

The following measures were therefore majority ownership was discouraged unless
adopted in India for the competitiveness of deemed necessary to gain access to closely
its equipments and machinery held technologies or to promote exports in
manufacturing: internationally integrated activities). It
Import Substitution intervened in major technology contracts to
Human Resource Development and strengthen the negotiating position of
Technology Infrastructure domestic firms, and sought to maximize the
Standardization of unit sizes participation of local consultants in

Focus on selected manufacturing engineering contracts.

technologies and products among

Technological effort in Korea was supported
others.
by the government in several ways,

3.2 Equipment and Machinery by tax incentives: transfer costs of patent

Manufacturing in Korea rights and technology import fees were tax

deductible; income from technology
Korea is the best known example of the use consulting was not taxed; and foreign
of strategic industrial policy to develop engineers were exempted from income tax.
indigenous technological capabilities. It
combined import-substitution with forceful In addition to tax incentives, the government

export promotion, selectively protecting and also gave financial grants and long term low

subsidizing targeted industries that were to interest loans to enterprises that participated

form its future export advantage. Korea in national projects.

drew extensively on foreign technology, but

SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) were
in forms that promoted local control: it was
helped with shop-floor advice and guidance
one of the largest importers of capital goods
to upgrade technical capabilities and
in the developing world, and allowed its
productivity by KOPTEC (Korea Production
firms unrestricted access to the latest
Technology Corporation). KOPTEC
equipment (except when it was promoting
complemented the help provided by the
particular domestic products); it encouraged
SMIPC (Small and Medium Industry
the hiring of individual foreign experts; it
Promotion Corporation), which also gave
allowed licensing and, where necessary,
foreign minority ownership (but foreign
24 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008
technical, training, and other services to Inadequate and deteriorating educational
SMEs. facilities in engineering and technology exist
in our institutions of higher learning.
4.0 CHALLENGES FOR THE RAW
MATERIALS PROCESSING 4.3 Basic Raw Materials;
EQUIPMENT AND MACHINERY
The materials required for the fabrications
MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY
are mainly flat steel, angle irons channels,
Large scale manufacturing of raw materials and bars. These basic raw materials are
processing equipment and machinery in imported and are not readily available. Even
Nigeria is constrained largely due to: if available the prices are prohibitive thereby
making the end products expensive.
4.1 Engineering Infrastructural
4.4 Low Patronage /Market;
problems;

Low production volumes due to low

Engineering infrastructures are those
patronage from the investing public and
capabilities and physical plants which are
government department and agencies
required to enable a prolific machine design
consequently high production cost.
and production to take place. The near
absences of such infrastructures in Nigeria
4.5 Inadequate Protection;
as; machine tools, foundry, forge, plating,
and rapid prototyping machine among Government policies on the sector are not
others, make it very difficult to design and consistent. This opens the sector to
fabricate necessary equipment and competition from products from more
machinery. advanced economies like China and India,
which eventually leads to dumping of
4.2 Technical Skill and Training
cheaper equipment and machinery in
Facilities;
Nigeria thereby putting local fabricator off
the market.
There is gross inadequacy of highly skilled,
disciplined and motivated technical
manpower. Less than 0.2 per 1000 personnel
are in engineering and technology.

25 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

4.6 Power Supply;
5.1 Experience of Raw Materials
Public power supply is still unreliable and
Research and Development Council
causing operations to be severely disrupted
(RMRDC);
for a long period at a time. Only a few of the
fabricators can afford to run their equipment
Before the establishment of the Raw
on private generators, which significantly
Materials Research and Development
affect their capacity utilization consequently
Council, manufacturing industries depended
their development.
mainly on imported technologies and
equipment for their operations. More
4.7 Lack of Standardized Parts;
worrisome is the fact that the spare parts for
Because parts are not standardized for any process equipment were also imported. To
equipment manufactured locally, the address this, the RMRDC devised the
equipment or machine builder must design following programmes:
and fabricate each component part. This
Raw Material Process Equipment
makes the logistics for mass production of
Development (PED)
machinery a daunting task.
Pilot Plant Development (PPD)
4.8 Funding/ Credit Facilities; Upgrade of Indigenous Technology
for processing raw materials (UII).
Most machine and equipment manufacturers
are small scale businesses without any asset Under the PED programme the Council
or collateral. This low level of financial funded the development of various process
resources limits their ability to access loan equipment by Nigerian Engineers and
from commercial banks for purchase of new Technologists. These include ball mill,
equipment and technology. roaster, spray dryers, boiler, expeller,
cyclone, talc processing plant, kaolin
5. INTERVENTIONS
processing plant, phosphate beneficiation

There are several efforts to position the plant and a number of others. The approach

equipments and machinery manufacturing in yielded limited results and the Council

Nigeria some of these efforts are; identified the non application of standard
engineering design procedure for the poor

26 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

performance of many of this locally of this programme, the Council also in
fabricated process equipment in terms of life collaboration with National Mathematical
span, efficiency, predictability of output, Centre, Abuja initiated a grant for the
materials of construction, optimal utilization Mathematical Modeling of Process
of energy, environmental friendliness and Equipment and Process Plant.
ergonometric considerations.
The success of the programme will ensure
The Council thus organized a capacity locally fabricated equipment that can
building workshop in collaboration with compete with equipment produced in
African Regional Centre for Engineering advanced Countries.
Design, and manufacturing (ARCEDEM),
Under the Pilot Plant development
Ibadan in August 2003. This was followed
programme, the Council utilizes the research
by a design competition for process
capabilities and facilities of the Universities,
equipment which has yielded a number of
Polytechnics, Research institutes and
equipment designs which are improvement
Industries to implement specific research
on earlier fabricated equipment. To ensure
projects. The Council funds the project and
continuity of the programme the Council is
promotes their commercialization after
collaborating with the stakeholders and
confirming their technical and economic
relevant organizations to establish a private
viability among other strategies.
sector driven National Foundation for
Process Equipment Design and
Further, in her effort to promote local
Development that would add value to our
engineering capabilities in design and
local raw materials.
manufacturing of process equipment, the
Council in collaboration with International
The Council, in May 2002, constituted a
Institute of Tropical agriculture (IITA),
team of engineers drawn from academics
Roots and Tubers Expansion Programme
and private sector to work on the
(RTEP) and Godilogo Farms, Obudu
development of Computer-Aided Design
assembled a team of engineers from the
Software. The team has successfully
academia, research institutes and private
completed work on cyclones (hydro cyclone
sector to design and fabricate a flash dryer
and gas cyclone) and spray dryer. In support
for high quality cassava flour production.

27 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

The fabricated dryer can produce 500Kg of When these are developed, they are
dried cassava flour per hour. transferred to the private sector.

Compared to other existing flash dryers,

NASENI operates seven development
(local & foreign) in the country, the
Centre across the Country, these are ;
RMRDC- IITA-RTEP- Godilogo sponsored
Scientific Equipment Development Institute,
flash dryer is more efficient in terms of:
Enugu (SEDI-E); Scientific Equipment
Power consumption Development Institute, Minna (SEDI-M);
Fuel consumption and Centre for Adaptation of Technology
Lower moisture content of dry product (CAT), Awka; Engineering Materials
Institute (EMDI), Akure; Hydraulic
The dryer was commissioned in August,
Equipment development Institute (HEDI),
2008 in Cross River State.
Kano; National Engineering Design
The Council further identified those local development centre (NEDDEC), Nnewi and
technologies for processing various raw Power Equipment and Electrical Materials
materials which have been in existence for Centre (PEEMADEC), Okene.
centuries but still being practiced by our
Through it centers NASENI is implementing
people. The programme of upgrade of
programmes aimed at creating an enabling
indigenous technology entails setting up
environment for the development and
technical teams to understand the local
maintenance of a functional engineering
technologies and upgrade them to cottage or
infrastructure base by the private sector.
small scale industries using simple
These include; reverse engineering;
equipment.
establishment of satellite industries through
5.2 National Agency for Science and joint ventures; acquisition and domestication
Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI); of new technologies; industrial cluster
promotion in emerging technologies such as
The agencys mandate is to ensure that the nanotechnology, new materials, ICT
engineering infrastructure required to devices, CAD/CAM, CNC machines and
translate the innovations into commercial Virtual Manufacturing laboratories.
capital goods are available and functional.

28 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

5.3 African Regional Centre for proffering solutions to the identified
Engineering Design and Manufacturing challenges that are militating against
(ARCEDEM); development of viable equipment and
machinery manufacturing sectors that will
The Centre is a non-profit making African
be a catalyst for achieving the vision
inter-government organization establish in
20/2020:
1979 with the sponsorship of United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa 6.1 Standardization of Unit Size and
(UNECA), UNIDO and the Organization for Parts;
African Unity.
For process industries, the choice of unit
The main objective of the centre is to assist size and standardization of parts has an
African countries to develop capability for important bearing on the development of
engineering design, manufacturing and local technological development.
maintenance. Facilities at the centre include Government should standard unit size and
design offices, computer aided design parts this will help in rapid absorption and
(CAD), computer aided manufacturing mastery of technology because it will bring
(CAM), heat treatment facilities, machine about frequent replication of similar plant
and fabrication workshops with a complete and parts.
tool room.
6.2 Develop Technical Education and
The Centre is presently not functional due to Training Facilities;
managerial problem.
Revive interest for existing higher technical
6.0 HE WAY FORWARD education towards core engineering stream
by revising outdated curriculum, adopting
If Nigeria is to achieve her aim of being
interdisciplinary approach and increasing
among the world largest 20 economy by the
relevance to industrial application.
2020, then she must be technologically self-
Manufacturing industry should strive to
reliant in her ability to manufacture
attract and retain the best engineering
equipment and machinery that will add
talents.
value to natural resources. The following
suggestion should go along way to

29 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

Encourage private sector to establish and Industry and the Nigeria Bank for
operate demand-driven technical training Agriculture, Co-operative and Rural
centres through financial and other Development. The Money Could be made
incentives, under carefully designed industry available to the fabricators through their
initiative, supported and coordinated by Associations. The Loan interest rate should
government, for quality and accreditation be as low as 2-3% without any hidden
system. charges and collateral. Government should
fund research in R&D institutions especially
Challenge locally available manpower with
in the area of design and fabrication and
special projects with set targets and time
provide financial assistance for
frames.
commercialization of fabricated equipment
required for processing raw materials.
6.3 Upgrade technological capabilities of
Equipment and Machinery 6.5 Patronage/Market;

Manufacturers;
Government and its agencies should
Provide an effective outreach programme patronize the fabricators, as this will give the

through designated public R&D institutes, public the confidence to do the same.

starting with effective dissemination of Government should focus on import

information on standards to help fabricators substitution strategy as this will facilitate the

improve technological capabilities. patronage of local capability in any

Develop subcontracting and encourage technology and therefore creating market for

integration of fabricator in the overall indigenous equipments and machinery.

manufacturing sector, through vendor

6.6 Infrastructure;
improvement and certification programs, as
suppliers of parts and components. There is need to adopt a strategy of self
reliance in the provision of appropriate
6.4 Funding;
engineering infrastructure for the

The Federal Government should introduce a manufacturing of equipment and machinery.

loan scheme for processing equipment and The following needed to be done to have
machinery fabricators in the Bank of

30 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

viable infrastructure for the development of Removal of any form of restriction on
the sub sector; the import of equipment, machinery and
spares needed in the sector.

Government should expedite action

Consistency in government policies to
to censure that the steel plants and
allow for long-term planning and
rolling mills are functional and
investment.
operate at their full capacities.
Scourge of multiple taxations by the 3-
Government should encourage the
tiers of government should be
establishment of foundries and
discouraged.
plating industries.

The current reform going on the CONCLUSION

power sector should be intensified
The majority of the fabricators operate at the
until regular power supply is
micro/cottage and small scale level and
available for sustainable industrial
many of them do not have good engineering
production.
background. This is reflected in the quality
6.7 Government Policies; of their outputs and products.

For the sub sector to develop there is a need Every nations capacity for techno-economic
for government to reconsider its policies it development must as a matter of course is
the following areas; related to its capacity to design and
manufacture most of its capital equipment
Need for protectionism against
and machinery. Therefore these fabricators
dumping of sub-standard equipments
need to be encouraged to improve their
and machinery.
ability to mass produce high quality range of
Import substitution measure on parts equipment and machinery.

or equipment and machinery that can

The suggestions made in this paper, if
be manufactured locally should be
implemented, will, no doubt, go a long way
put in place.
towards enhancing the economic and

31 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

technological advancement of the nation to We must heed the universal warning
achieving her vision of 20/2020. MANUFACTURE OR PERISH!

32 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008

 Summit , National Engineering Centre, (pp
REFERENCS
99).

1. Aribisala O.A. (1989), raw

4. Report of the technical committee
materials processing paper presented at the
for the update Directory of Equipment /
1989 national engineering conference at
Machinery Fabricators in Nigeria (2002)
NICON hotel, Abuja.
published by Raw materials Research and

2. Onwualu A.P. and Ejuya I.O. (2007) Development.

capacity building in process equipment

5. Indian Manufacturing Industry
design and development - The RMRDC
Technology status and prospects.
Experience paper presented at NSE
www.unido.org (07 09 -08)
International Conference and Annual
meeting pp 184.

3. The first Technology Summit,

Abuja, (1997) published by Technology

33 Nigerian Society of Engineers YANKARI, 2008