News-Analysis for Lagos Metropolitan
By Nkanu Egbe
When Lagos State unveiled the Senator Oluremi Tinubu Industrial Leather Hub in Mushin this September, the fanfare was about far more than shiny machines and speeches. Officials promised 10,000 direct and indirect jobs, training for 150,000 artisans, and export earnings of US $200–250 million a year once the facility reaches full capacity. The timing is perfect: Nigeria’s leather sector is listed in the Federal Government’s diversification strategy as a “next-oil” foreign-exchange earner.
But for Lagosians, the announcement intersects with a uniquely local debate—the fate of ponmo, the beloved cow-skin delicacy. For years public-health experts and economists have called for a ban, citing low nutritional value and the lost opportunity to turn hides into export-grade leather. The counter-argument has been cultural and economic: ponmo is cheap protein and a vital informal trade.
The new hub reframes the conversation. If Lagos can create a profitable market for quality hides, it may succeed in pricing ponmo skins out of the food chain—without legislating anyone’s dinner plate.
Why This Hub Matters
1. Urban Market Pull
Unlike Kano or Aba, Lagos concentrates the nation’s biggest fashion and design houses, luxury shoe makers, and e-commerce logistics. Finishing leather where the buyers are shortens development cycles and encourages small brands to source locally.
2. Jobs and Skills
The state promises that 70 percent of the jobs will go to women and youth, and the hub includes training studios, product-development labs, and industrial machinery for bags, belts, and footwear. For thousands of informal artisans, it is a bridge from roadside workshops to export-ready production.
3. Non-Oil Export Drive
With oil earnings volatile, leather is a strategic alternative. Nigeria already ranks among Africa’s top raw-hide exporters; moving up the value chain means earning in dollars for finished goods rather than pennies for raw skins.
The Hard Part: Supply, Standards, and Sustainability
Raw Hides vs. Ponmo. Quality leather starts at the abattoir. Hides must be flayed without nicks and preserved quickly with salt or chilling. Today many are scorched, cut, or boiled for ponmo long before tanners see them. Without premium pricing and contracts with Oko-Oba and satellite slaughterhouses, the hub could find itself starved of good skins.
Environmental Compliance. Leather tanning is water- and chemical-intensive, especially with chrome. Lagos Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) rules demand functioning effluent-treatment plants and monthly discharge reports. The hub must operate a central effluent-treatment plant (CETP) and make data public to avoid becoming another industrial polluter.
Cost Competitiveness. Power, water, and logistics in Lagos remain expensive. Without stable utilities and free-zone-style incentives, small tanneries may struggle to match Asian prices even if quality improves.
How to Make It Work
- Cluster Governance: Treat the hub as a shared-service industrial park—common beam-house, chrome-recovery unit, QA laboratory, and CETP—so micro-tanneries can meet export standards at lower cost.
- Guaranteed Off-Take: Sign three-way MOUs between abattoirs, hub operators, and major buyers to guarantee volumes and premium payments for leather-grade hides.
- Certification and Branding: Aim early for Leather Working Group or ISO 14001 certification to win global buyers and reassure eco-conscious consumers.
- Financing with Compliance: Tie BOI and DFI loans to proof of environmental and labour compliance to keep bad actors out.
What It Means for Ponmo Lovers
If the hub succeeds, economics—not prohibition—will decide ponmo’s future. When abattoirs can earn more selling salted, intact hides to tanners than to food processors, supply for the dinner table will shrink naturally. Ponmo will survive as a specialty item, but its days as cheap street food may be numbered.
The Bottom Line
The new leather hub is Lagos’ most serious attempt yet to turn a cultural controversy into an economic opportunity. Success will depend on disciplined execution: clean feedstock, strict environmental management, and credible export markets. If those pieces fall into place, Lagos can prove that pricing—rather than banning—ponmo is the smarter path, while creating jobs and foreign exchange along the way.
Sources: Lagos State Government press releases; Guardian Nigeria and BusinessDay reports on the Mushin Leather Hub (Sept 2025); National Leather and Leather Products Policy (2018/2024 updates); NESREA and LASEPA environmental regulations.
- Nkanu Egbe, economist and journalist, is the Publisher/Editor, Lagos Metropolitan
