FG inaugurates steering committee for rehabilitation of Ladi Kwali Pottery Training Centre

MINISTER of Mines and Steel Development, Honourable Abubakar Bawa Bwari has inaugurated a six-man ministerial committee on the rehabilitation of Ladi Kwali Pottery Centre, Suleja to kick start the rebirth of the pottery industry in Nigeria after a long period of neglect.

The committee has Engineer Sani Alhassan as Chairman, Umar Shaibu, Umar Saleh, Yunusa Muhammed, Linus Adie and representative of the Niger State Government as members.

Represented by the Project Coordinator of the Mineral Sector Support for Economic Diversification (MinDiver), under the ministry, Mr Linus Adie, the minister said he was excited to be associated with the revival story of the famous Ladi Kwali Pottery Training Centre.

He said the new goal of the Federal Government was to restore the glory of the centre and happy to be privileged to witness the first step in such direction with the inauguration of the steering committee to develop a strategy for the rehabilitation of the centre.

According to him: “Our target is to re-create the glory of the past era and surpass it. As a young student in Government Secondary School, Suleja, the centre was regarded as a citadel of industry and technology where ordinary clay is transformed into aesthetic household wares. The centre attracted many visitors from all over the world. It brought the Nigerian local pottery industry to international fame and to us it stood as a symbol of industry.”

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Honourable Bwari described the centre as a good example in achieving the lofty goals within the nation’s local industry when accomplished in view of the country’s current plan of diversifying the economy and creating employment opportunities for the huge population through the utilisation of local resources for industrial production.

The minister charged the committee with the responsibility of developing a new concept for the Centre bearing in mind the strong need for its sustainability, analyse the current market segmentation and tease out the product lines bearing in mind the need to maintain the globally accomplished Ladi Kwali Brand.

He said they should recommend capacity programmes that include national coverage, recommended funding model that ensures the sustainability of the Centre; suggest the necessary infrastructure that will drive the fulfilment of the objectives for the new Ladi Kwali Centre and suggest any downstream development especially in raw materials supply that will sustain the pottery industry in Nigeria.

Reacting, Chairman of the committee, Engineer Sani Alhassan, said this was a great day for the Suleja emirate, people and Niger State because efforts were made before with little result.

“I am happy and we will do all we can to get it done. It may seem daunting but we will do our best. What the MinDiver and Ministry of Mines and Steel Development have done is historic.” He added.