Nigeria experienced a leather trade deficit of N173bn in the first six months of 2025, despite having a significant livestock population. Stakeholders suggest that factors such as insecurity and the prevalent consumption of ponmo (cooked cow skin) have contributed to the leather trade becoming increasingly reliant on imports, as noted by ARINZE NWAFOR
In the first half of 2025, Nigeria recorded a N173.04bn trade deficit in the raw hides, skins, and leather sector, as stakeholders lamented the effects of banditry on livestock production, a weak business environment, a declining workforce, outdated tannery machines, and the local culture of eating ponmo, which is cooked cow skin.
Analysis of the National Bureau of Statistics’ trade data revealed that total imports for the sector stood at N190.02bn between January and June 2025, while exports amounted to a significantly lower N16.98bn.
A breakdown of the foreign trade in goods statistics shows a fluctuating trend in import expenditure. The country imported leather products worth N109.74bn in the first quarter of 2025, but this figure dropped to N80.28bn in the second quarter, representing a decline of 36.71 per cent.
On a year-on-year basis, the H1 2025 import figure of N190.02bn represents a massive 173.51 per cent increase from the N69.47bn recorded in the first half of 2024.
This trade imbalance comes despite Nigeria’s most recent recorded livestock population of 273.80 million. The National Agricultural Sample Survey 2022/2023, conducted by the NBS in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the Food and Agriculture Organisation, and the World Bank, estimated Nigeria’s total livestock population at 273.80 million.
Goats accounted for the highest figure at 138.95 million, followed by sheep at 64.93 million and cattle at 54.81 million. Despite these numbers, the leather industry struggles to convert this potential into finished exportable goods.
Stakeholders blame banditry, ponmo-eating culture
Stakeholders in the manufacturing and chemical unions have identified a combination of lethal factors strangulating the Nigerian leather industry. They listed insecurity in the north, specifically banditry, the widespread consumption of animal skin as food (ponmo), outdated processing machinery, and a harsh business environment as the primary drivers of the trade deficit.
Stakeholders, in separate interviews with The PUNCH, warned of the closure of major tanneries, following a reduced workforce and the risk of Nigeria turning into a dumping ground for foreign leather substitutes and raw hides meant for consumption rather than production.
Ponmo consumption appears uncontrollable
The PUNCH learnt from the leather manufacturers that a significant portion of the raw hides imported into Nigeria does not end up in tanneries but in cooking pots. The high cost of meat has driven the populace, particularly in the south and increasingly in the north, to consume hides and skins as a cheaper alternative to beef for protein.
The Chairman of the Textile, Leather, Garment and Wearing Apparel Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Lawan Garo, stated that importers exploit loopholes to bring in hides for consumption.
Garo said, “Seventy per cent of the goods imported into the country are for mere eating. That is what we import. We hardly import finished leather; rather, it is for ‘ponmo’. In Nigeria, we always try to use loopholes to make more money out of the edicts that the government gives us the chance to do. I will send you the pictures because 70 per cent of those imported raw hides are for eating. It is not for the tanning industry or the shoe industry.”
This consumption pattern directly affects the availability of raw materials for local industries. The General-Secretary of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Employees, Tunde Olagoke, corroborated this, noting that the local habit of eating wet hides inhibits the tanning process.
“The third factor is high local consumption of wet hides and skins as food, thereby inhibiting the tanning process for further production of final goods such as leather products, which are not limited to bags, shoes, belts, etc.,” Olagoke stated.
Senior Assistant National Secretary of NUCFRLANMPE, Mathias Joel, explained that economic hardship has expanded the geography of ponmo consumption beyond the southwest.
“If we check, ponmo was popularly known in Southwestern Nigeria. But now, as I am talking to you from Kano, ponmo has taken over because of the poor populace. Things are very difficult now. People have shifted from buying meat. Given the high cost of meat, many people have opted to consume ponmo instead, as it seems to be more affordable. That is a big problem now. It is all over in the north, even in the east,” Joel noted.
He added that citizens now use the skin for various dishes, including beans, stew, and rice, which severely depletes the inputs required for the leather industry.
Insecurity and cattle rustling
Beyond consumption, criminal elements have disrupted the raw hides and skins supply chain. Banditry in the northern region has facilitated the illegal exit of livestock, further reducing the domestic availability of skins.
General Secretary of NUCFRLANMPE Olagoke explained: “The surge in importation of hides and skins cannot be far-fetched from cattle rustling activities of the bandits, thereby leading to illegal sales of the livestock to the neighbouring countries. Secondly, climate change is equally affecting the reproduction of livestock, thereby reducing the local production of hides and skins.”
The MAN Leather Group Chairman, Garo, also noted that the consumption of meat determines the availability of skins. Since the economic downturn has reduced meat consumption per household, fewer animals are slaughtered, and consequently, fewer skins are available for tanneries.
“You do not get the raw material unless people are eating meat. Because leather skins are by-products. So, you do not just kill animals just to get the skins. You kill animals to eat the meat, and then we get the skins,” Garo added.
Workforce decline amid factory closures
The combined effect of these challenges has been catastrophic for employment in the sector. Kano State, once the hub of leather tanneries in West Africa, has seen a near-total collapse of its processing capacity.
MAN leather chairman Garo warned, “Kano is the centre of the leather tanneries in the country. Before, we had about 21 tanneries in Kano, and then we had some in Lagos, like about three tanneries in Lagos. Unfortunately, they are all out of action now. We have about two in Sokoto State, one in Zamfara and another one in Borno State, in Maiduguri,” he said.
Joel provided specific data on the workforce reduction, noting that the decline began noticeably around 2017 and accelerated in 2021.
“I know we used to have over 40 factories in this very business. But I can count; it is my field… currently, the city can boast of about three companies. And the three companies… no longer operate at the capacity they were known for. We have Gashash Tannery. So, all these (factories) where you used to have like thousands of workers, now you hardly get 200. A place with about 4,000 workers is just having 30-something workers,” Joel lamented.
Outdated technology plagues value addition
A critical failure in the leather sector is the inability of tanneries to process leather to the finished stage required by the modern global market. The industry largely exports “wet blue”, a semi-processed state of leather, which fetches significantly lower revenue than finished leather goods.
Senior Assistant National Secretary of NUCFRLANMPE Joel attributed this inability of tanneries to process leather to its finished stage to obsolete machinery and a lack of technical expertise to operate modern equipment.
Joel stated, “Nigeria has already adopted the method of exporting a raw material instead of a processed material. They export the raw material… they call it Wet Blue. It is a semi-processed material. We have the wet blue due to the outdated kind of machines they have. And once we are producing a semi-processed kind of material, it is already giving a picture that you are losing and missing out on the full value of leather products.”
He further explained the technological gap: “Most of the machines in Nigerian factories are outdated. They are old-fashioned. And getting the new ones is difficult due to the issues with importing such machines. Number two, the manpower capacity, the technical know-how. Some of these need educated people, unlike the outdated kind of machinery that we are using, where even a worker who did not go to school can operate them in a factory. But now, the invention they are having now with the technology involves machines that need brains.”
Garo also highlighted the decline of the local shoe manufacturing industry, citing the example of PAMAD (formerly Bata Shoes), which operates at a fraction of its former capacity. He argued that Nigeria has no business exporting semi-processed leather when it could be producing shoes and adding value locally.
Policy inconsistencies and smuggling
Stakeholders severely criticised the government for policy flip-flops and the failure to honour export incentives. The Export Expansion Grant, designed to encourage non-oil exports, has become a source of frustration.
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