By Nnabugwu Chizoba (Development
Practitioner)
 |
| Installed ‘Scourer Machine’ already in use. Timothy Manah (Right). |
A young Nigerian machine
fabricator, Manah Timothy, is a polytechnic graduate with specialization in
Production Engineering. He hails from Edo state, but lives in Jos, the Plateau
state capital. From available records, it is very obvious that he is poised to change
the face of production in Nigeria by dominating the production sector with
locally fabricated process machines, with capacity to replace and outperform the
highly expensive foreign machines presently in use in the sector.
Going by what Timothy Manah is
doing presently to rescue the Nigerian economy from the domination of foreign machines
in production; he ranks among the group of young people in the world doing
their country proud.
This is coming at a time many
Nigerian youths, including the graduates among them, roam the streets seeking for
what people in some quarters have tagged none existent jobs, in the government Ministries,
Departments and Agencies, popularly called MDAs.
In the midst of this job hunt, the
polytechnic graduates complain seriously of high level discrimination,
marginalization, and unequal opportunities that exist in the labour market, and
is making it extremely very difficult for them to secure employment and in this
regard limited their opportunity to ply their trade, even when some of them
have proven to be very good in their chosen field. According to them, the
labour market in Nigeria is systematically designed to favour their university counterparts.
While the argument above rages on
and the number of unemployed youths, continue to swell with each graduating set
from various tertiary institutions in the country adding to the number of
unemployed youths, while the unemployment challenge, in addition to all other
issues associated with it continue unabated, young Manah, has taken the
challenge to do things differently, in a bid to change the ugly narrative, and reduce
the unemployment rate, by replacing those imported expensive machines that he
and some other Nigerians can produce far better ones in terms of cost, efficiency
and sustainability.
To match his feelings, thoughts and
words with action, Timothy Manah opened his engineering outfit, the Omanah
Engineering, with a self-imposed mandate, clearly anchored on taking over the production
of machines used by manufacturers in Nigeria, notwithstanding that they are dominated
by imported ones.
If you consider his mandate a mere
threat, then you just have to examine your head ones again, because Timothy
Manna’s products are already holding sway. They have been tested and proven to
be efficient and outstanding. The Machines are doing exceedingly well. From
Enugu to Zaria and other places, where complete installation and production are
taking place, the machines of Omanah Engineering are saving for the Machine
owners thousands of Dollars and Millions of Naira that would have been expended
on the less efficient imported machines.
As it is common knowledge that no
single individual can personally transform the Nigerian economy, it is expected
that committed effort in terms of support and patronage be extended to Timothy
Manah and his outfit, the Omanah Engineering, to realize his dream of
contributing significantly towards the efforts to make Nigeria a self-reliant, buoyant
and self-sustaining economy.
On the strength of the foregoing
therefore, I wish to call on the federal, state and local governments in
Nigeria, institutions and well-meaning citizens to give Timothy Manah and the
Omanah Engineering the maximum support to actively pursue and deliver on his well-intended
efforts geared towards creation of job, wealth generation, economic recovery, empowerment
and sustainable development.
Doing the above will ensure that
the government objective of promoting local content and developing the local economy
through support for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise MSMEs is a genuine
effort, not an oxymoron. Timothy Manah, his company Omanah Engineering, and
others like him in the country need the support of all, especially at this time
that the word on the mouth of those on the corridors of power is
entrepreneurship development.
Details on Omanah Engineering Machines
coming on this Platform very soon…
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