By Harris Emanuel – Uyo
Management of Jubilee Syringe Manufacturing Company Limited, located in Onna Council of Akwa Ibom State has announced plans to go into the production of specialized syringes for COVID-19 vaccines.
Its Managing Director, Akin Oyediran dropped the hints while Fielding questions from newsmen immediately hosting the House of Assembly Committee on Rural Development and Public Utilities which came on a fact-finding mission as part of its oversight function.
Besides, he said that the company which is producing one million syringes daily was branching out into the West African countries to earn foreign exchange.
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He commended governor Udom Emmanuel for providing the enabling for companies to thrive, disclosing that many companies were on their way to Akwa Ibom state because of its peaceful and secured ambiance as well as other extraneous factors.
According to him, the company (JSM) which is barely three years was breaking even, as a result of the huge market and demand for syringes.
He noted that most companies fold up after a few years because of over-dependent on the government incentives and lack of well articulate sustainability plans.
He said,” we are planning to go into the production of masks, gloves, and syringes for the Corona vaccine. For the vaccination, we will use one and a half mill syringes.
“So, what we are going to do is start producing those syringes and people will come and buy from us. The moment the vaccine is developed for COVID 19, it is going to be very popular because you will need it before you travel just like the yellow fever vaccine.
“JSM is already a success story. We produce one million syringes daily and we can’t even meet the demands in Nigeria. The reason we are focusing on exportation is because of foreign exchange. We want to earn foreign exchange. We have a huge and good market outside the country as well.
“One of the reasons for the reasons most companies fold up is because they rely so much on government incentives. The only thing that we depend on the government is security. We pay our tax on time. We pay our employees taxes on time. We pay our regulatory fees on time. It’s a sustainable business.
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“We are grateful to governor Udom Emmanuel and this administration. The governor has created an enabling environment for us to operate here. Without the governor’s vision, we won’t be here to start the company in the first place.
“On top of the governor’s vision is the enabling environment he has continued to create for companies to come here. A lot more companies are going to come.”
He noted that the company has established an excellent working relationship with the host communities, adding that it has been following the Memorandum of Understanding entered into with them.
“Our CSR is intact. We have an MoU that we work with. We are supposed to provide a kind of service to the people, training, scholarship, and all that.
One of the things we did was to organize training for the people to even be able to get jobs here because they didn’t have the basic skills. We work very well with the youths because they are the ones we are focusing on.”
