The federal government has said that the proposal to ban the consumption of cow skin, locally known as ponmo, in the country was due to the lack of nutritional value.
Naija News reports that the director-general, Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST), Zaria, Muhammad Yakubu, disclosed this on Sunday in Abuja.
Yakubu noted that the habit of eating animal skin, which has no nutritional value, should be stopped to save the industry and boost the nation’s economy.
The director-general added that the institute, in collaboration with stakeholders in the industry, would approach the national assembly and state governments to bring out legislation banning “ponmo” consumption.
“To the best of my knowledge, Nigerians are the only people in the world that overvalue skin as food, after all, Ponmo has no nutritional value. At one point, there was a motion before the two chambers of the national assembly, it was debated but I don’t know how the matter was thrown away,” he said.
According to him, the present comatose state of tanneries in Nigeria was partly due to the consumption of animal skin.
He also said some fundamental problems of the sector was addressed in the current National Leather Policy.
“If we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get pomo to buy and eat. When implemented fully, it would turn around most of the comatose tanneries and ginger greater output in production.”
Yakubu further appealed to stakeholders to support the legislation and the national leather policy to revive the sector.
This article was originally published on Naija News
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