According to records, the Raw Materials Research and Development Council was established under Decree 39 of 1988 with the clear mandate to support and expedite industrial development and self-sufficiency through maximum utilization of local raw materials as inputs for the nation’s industries.
Fundamentally, this was to minimize the wild tendency in the industrial sector to source raw materials outside the shores of the country, a situation which in the past led to the alarming increase in import bills for raw materials.
In other words, it was not only a practice then but an obsession for most Nigerians to import both their machinery and raw materials requirements.
But today, there is no doubting of the fact that the situation has been greatly reversed.
Undeniably, this has come through a growing awareness and untiring efforts and policy thrust of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council to not only establish liaison offices in the state but to decentralize its several activities and focus mainly on the rural areas which habour about 90% of the country’s total raw materials potentials.
Suffice, it to say that even at this, very little has been achieved in the state in terms of the development and utilization of its abundant natural resources.
Little wonder then that the state administration is refocusing attention to promote the raw material potentials of the state.
It is no longer a hidden fact that Cross River State is blessed with a great number of mineral deposits.
These include uranium, manganese, lignite, lead, and zinc. There is also tin, platinum, silver, feldspar, and gold.
Others are Mica, Salt, Kaolin, Columbite, sand, clay, and limestone.
Mineral deposits are substances occurring naturally and more or less homogenous composition, mined for man’s use or as a solid crystallin element or compound formed by natural processes and usually extracted from the earth.
Although these mineral resources abound in the state, unfortunately, there has been little effort to investigate the quality and quantity of these deposits on a sustainable basis.
It is against this background that we call on the Raw Material Research and Development Council to establish a well-equipped raw materials center in the state to promote the continuous documentation and exploitation of the mineral potentials of the state.
On the other hand, the Council should not end up carrying out periodic inventory of raw material availability and utilization for industrial development. Still, it should intensify the publicity of its findings.
This will not only put such information at the disposal of investors and industrialists but will accelerate the pace of industrial development in the state and country in general.
All said, there is a need for harmonization of efforts between the state government and the raw materials research and development council to enable the state to maintain a prime position in natural resource endowment and utilization.
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