Chief Prince Egwuekwe, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Prince Interior Furniture and Furnishing, says Nigeria’s wood industry holds enormous untapped potentials that could rival the country’s oil sector’s revenue.
By Angela Atabo
Chief Prince Egwuekwe, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Prince Interior Furniture and Furnishing, says Nigeria’s wood industry holds enormous untapped potentials that could rival the country’s oil sector’s revenue.
Egwuekwe, who is also the President of Furniture Makers Association of Nigeria, made this known at a news conference to mark the firm’s 25th anniversary, on Friday in Abuja.
According to him, the wood industry has the potential to contribute significantly to Nigeria’s gross domestic product, create jobs, address the “japa” syndrome, and reduce the country’s reliance on oil exports.
He said that the country’s wood resources were not just abundant but also of exceptional quality, adding that Nigeria had some of the most valuable and diverse woods in the world.
“My father is a timber dealer. He has a saw mill, so I understand what wood is. The wood sector can give Nigeria in terms of our revenue income far more than what the oil sector is giving us.
“The wood sector is an untapped goldmine. We have brachystegia eurycoma in Nigeria, we have ceiba wood, we have Pignatus excenlencia, we have walnut, we have cedar.
“These woods in the Western world, a cubic is 900 U.S. dollars; and we have them in trillions of cubic.
“The truth is, if the government will begin to ask those of us who know what wood is, and how to achieve this, we will open up to them,” he said.
Egwuekwe said that foreigners were benefitting from most of Nigeria’s untapped resources by developing and selling them back to Nigerians.
He stressed that there was an urgent need for the re-evaluation of the country’s wood industry.
“That is why I say we should stop importation of furniture because we are importing rubbish. It is the sawdust from the wood they took they are using to make them.
“The processed wood they took, they will build AK47 heads with the walnut, build their ship, glass and so many things.
“They will produce furniture for you from the dust of the wood and they will bring it here and say it is Italian furniture, whereas we have the best wood here.”
Egwuekwe encouraged Nigerians to patronise local products, adding that Nigerian wood has the potential to last over 20 years.
Emphasising the potentials of Nigerian woods further, he said Nigeria was wasting sawdust, whereas countries like Russia use it to generate energy.
He said that sawdust in Nigeria usually ends up in agricultural farms where fowls are trained or used as cooking fuel.
According to him, there are so many other minerals and resources that can give Nigeria a lot of benefits like job creation, but the nation is not tapping them due to over-reliance on oil.
Egwuekwe said there was need for the nation to begin to tap the potential of wood just like what China did in the past when it closed its doors and empowered youths for local production of furniture.
He said that because China had the political will, today all eyes are on China so much so that after COVID-19 they had over five million youths that became billionaires, including Ali Baba.
Egwuekwe said that if Nigeria looked inwards, she would discover people and companies that could produce locally like Innoson Motors, but all that is needed is the necessary support.
Reflecting on his journey in the last 25 years, Egwuekwe said that his company had been a catalyst for transformation in Nigeria’s carpentry.
He said the Carpenters’ House had for about 25 years trained not less than 700 Nigerians, most of whom are millionaires and billionaires.
The CEO said that the entrepreneur’s vision extended further with the establishment of the Prince Interior Furniture Training Institute, which would open in Feb. 2026.
He said the training centre would train 2,000 Nigerians annually, provide them with skills in carpentry, plumbing, welding, and other essential trades.
Egwuekwe said that “The Prince Interior Foundation” aimed to foster a culture of skill acquisition, with plans for each Nigerian state to send 50 to 100 youths annually to be trained.
He said that it would help youths, many of whom were falling prey to illegal activities like internet fraud, kidnapping, and other vices.(NAN)
