Nigerian Content: Solewant products are qualitative, unprecedented — Minister
Barth Ndubuwah, Port Harcourt
The Minister of Water Resources, Engr. Suleiman Adamu has described the products manufactured by Solewant Group as of high quality and unprecedented in Nigeria.
The Minister made the assertion in Port Harcourt shortly after inspecting the Solewant facilities at Alode-Eleme in Rivers State.
Represented by one of the directors in the Water Resources Ministry, Engr Oyok Nsa, the Minister said that he had not seen any Nigerian Company that has carried out the feat recorded by Solewant Group.
According to him, it is more gratifying to see a hundred percent Nigerian Company manufacture such products in-country and as such Solewant needs to be encouraged and supported.
“We have come for an inspection visit, following a request by Solewant. What we have seen here today is unprecedented. The water treatment plant and other facilities are of high quality and meet International standard.
“Solewant has proved that they can manufacture high quality tanks and pipes that can convey safe water to the public. We are impressed, so we are going to make our report to the Honourable Minister of Water Resources when we get back,” Nsa said.
He advised aspiring Nigerian Companies to come and learn from Solewant, noting that there is nothing wrong in learning from a master in any field of your endeavour.
“On his part, the Managing Director and CEO of Solewant Group, Mr Solomon Ewanehi said their journey to manufacturing started as far back as 2004 when the Federal Governnment met with some stakeholders in Abuja to examine Nigerian industries and thought out plans on how to create jobs and curb increasing unemployment in the country.
“And consequent upon that, the Governor of Rivers State and the Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content and Monitoring Board(NCMB) came and commissioned our equipment manufacturing plant in 2016 and we set out to business. The result is what you saw today,” Ewanehi said.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) said their strength was derived from the Federal Governnment agencies who provided enabling laws that midwifed the Nigerian Content initiative,which Solewant Group capitalzed on to make exploits.
“The Minister of Water Resources, therefore came to assess and examine our facilities, especially the water tanks, with a view to ascertaining the quality.
“We collaborate with our international equipment manufacturing partners from Canada, Netherlands and China to manufacture the products.Our pipe-coating facility is of Euro-American technology,” the Solewant Group Managing Director said.
He named other facilities as laboratory, fabrication, polyethylene and polyurethane plants, among others.
The CEO who said his company has spent over $50m and still needs about $150m to consolidate, said he is happy that Nigerian engineers can hold their own and make all these achievements possible.
Mr Ewanehi identified patronage as a major challenge, pointing out that his company is not looking at challenges, because they are natural.
The Managing Director said he is more excited that NCMBC has elected Solewant as sole original manufacturers of coating pipes in the country, so if you need such products, you must come to Solewant.
