100,000 jobs will be created when Nigeria starts pencil production in 2018 – Onu

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The Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, has revealed that about 100,000 jobs will be created when Nigeria starts producing its own pencils in 2018.

Onu stated that this was part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s plan to revamp the wholesale production sector.

The Minister while speaking with Daily Trust, expressed optimism that the plan would have a meaningful impact on the economy, because the aim of his ministry is to “commercialise developed ideas and research findings to principal levels”.

Reacting to questions over the importance of pencil production, Onu affirmed that when the product of pencil starts over 100,000 jobs will be created.

He said, “Yes, I have heard questions on why pencils. We chose pencils to symbolize the problems that we have and our commitment to local production

“To produce pencils, we need wood, graphite, rubber for the eraser and possibly, we will need aluminium to hold the rubber in place. Then, we may need paint to give it colour. But even if we don’t add paint or rubber, already we have a pencil and it will write.

“Now, we have all the things to produce a pencil, which is used by a large number of people from our young pupils to engineers, and it looks simple to produce, yet we have not been able to produce it. That is why we talked about producing pencils.