COSMETIC & TOILETRIES RAW MATERIALS – Sources and Local Availability

Bydavidking

COSMETIC & TOILETRIES RAW MATERIALS – Sources and Local Availability

A discussion input by the Managing Director of Stellarchem Nigeria Ltd, Mr Ikpong Okon Umoh to The Workshop on Enhancing the Productivity of Our Industries, Organized by the Federal Ministry of Trade and Investment in Oriental Hotel Lekki, Lagos State

C &T raw materials are derived from three main primary sectors of the Nigerian economy namely:-Oil and Gas, Solid Minerals and Agriculture.

The possible raw materials from each source are as follows:-

CURRENT SITUATION:

All of these raw materials are currently being imported and used for the manufacture of Cosmetic, Toiletry and Pharmaceutical Bases as there are no local substitutes.

OIL & GAS: There is abundant oil and gas reserves in the country, the waxes and mineral oils are bi-product of petroleum refining. However, the sorry state of our refineries implies that the refining activities are far below installed capacity and cannot process the bi-product further into forms suitable for the industry to use.

SOLID MINERALS: The extractive industries in Nigeria are still in their infancy with activities limited to mining and very little value addition. Although talc and calcium carbonate are widely produced , their quality falls short of industry standards.

In particular, cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries makes use of talc and calcium carbonate with <1000 cfu/g. The current product available locally has a microbial load of >10,000cfu/g.

AGRICULTURE: Most of our agricultural produce is exported in their natural form with little or no processing. However, where there is processing like in the case of palm oil and palm kernel oil, it is done by the user companies like PZ-Cussons and Unilever  who have in –house facilities to split the fats/oils to free the fatty acids for their soap factories. There are no excesses or commercial quantities for other industries.

SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS:

The Federal Government should fix our refineries and build modern modular types that can refine our crude oils to make petroleum product abundantly available and free up the bi products that can be further refined into our raw materials.

They should encourage and empower the SMEs to set up and run small-scale chemical and extractive intermediate industries that can make some of the raw materials currently being imported. Such investment drive will result in huge savings in foreign exchange, encourage local entrepreneurial initiatives, skill acquisition and boost sustainable job creation.