The Federal Government has revealed plans to ban the consumption of animal skin, popularly known as ponmo.
According to the Director-general of the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology, Muhammad Yakubu, the move would help revive the country’s moribund leather industry.
Yakubu noted that plans are in motion to reintroduce a bill to prohibit the consumption of skin by Nigerians to the National Assembly.
“At one point, there was a motion before the two chambers of the national assembly, it was debated but I don’t know how the matter was thrown away,” Yakubu said.
“To the best of my knowledge, Nigerians are the only people in the world that overvalue skin as food, after all, Ponmo has no nutritional value,
“If we get our tanneries, our footwear and leather production working well in Nigeria, people will hardly get ponmo to buy and eat,” he added.
Yakubu believes that a ban on the consumption of ponmo would turn around Nigeria’s leather industry.
