Boosting Pulp and Paper Capacities with Non-Wood Fibrous Raw Materials in Nigeria.

The pulp and paper industry in Nigeria was planned to enable the country to be self-sufficient in pulp and paper output in the 1960’s-1970’s. While two of the integrated pulp and paper mills performed well in the late 1980’s they stopped operation in 1996 as a result of inadequate foreign exchange to import long fibre pulp and chemicals. While one of the mill has commenced operation after privatization in 2006, pulp and paper capacities in Nigeria has reduced considerably, necessitating annual expenditure of more than 500 million dollars annually on paper importation. This paper reviews the fibrous raw materials available in Nigeria and observes that a number of wood and non-wood fibres locally available in Nigeria can sustainably be used to promote self-sufficiency in pulp and paper output locally. Most of these fibrous resources are currently being used for paper production in most of the countries Nigeria is importing different types of papers from. Keywords: Pulp, Paper, Nigeria, non-wood , pulping. DOI: 10.7176/IEL/12-1-05 Publication date: March 31st 202