The Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Rio-Weighing Systems and Rio-Manufacturing Limited, Engineer Osikhena Richard Oyathelemhi, has stressed that the Nigerian government can effectively tackle the issues of growing unemployment, currency crises, and criminality by providing essential support to local producers. He supports supporting regional industries since they would help with the exports of locally produced items and create jobs through production procedures. With a focus on industrial products, Rio-Weighing Systems and Rio-Manufacturing Limited are 100% indigenous businesses with international alliances that help businesses meet and exceed their weighing and packaging needs. Engineer Oyathelemhi is a COREN registered engineer, a business strategist, and a graduate of Lagos Business School. She was also awarded the BusinessDay Award for MDs of the 100 SMEs in Nigeria that are expanding the fastest. Additionally, he attended Lagos Business School. Speaking lately on how his industry is impacted by the cost of doing business in Nigeria, he stated, “Well, to claim that we have not thought of packing out of the country would be far from the truth. Our primary goal as a manufacturing company is to assist other manufacturing companies with their weighing and packaging difficulties, but the current signs do not seem well for Nigerian manufacturing companies. It has been difficult and complex. But we must stay for a company like ours that is dedicated to contributing to Nigeria’s development. We are 100% indigenous, and the Nigerian dream is our dream as well. Leaving us is not an option, and none of our staff that we are aware of are leaving. Even if things are difficult, the companies are staying put. Here, we’ve been attempting to be creative and find better ways to conduct business. For example, we used to import all of our equipment from outside, but now we plan to import between 25% and 30% of the major parts from the US and the UK while beginning to produce and build the remaining parts locally. As you are aware, I am an engineer with over 20 years of experience in the weighing industry. I am also a material specialist and a COREN Engineer. We now have enough experience, and we can obtain some of the materials needed to assemble a significant portion of the equipment locally, allowing us to contribute or make up 80% of the cost locally. You can import the remaining 20 percent. One of the causes is the current high cost of obtaining dollars for imports. We’re seeking for ways to help the Nigerian dream come true. Regarding strategies to lessen the impact of foreign exchange on production, Osikhena stated that iron is a key element used by his company and that, at the moment, Ajaokuta Steel is not operating at its full potential, which would have made all of us pleased. But rather than importing, we want to purchase iron from some of the local steel processing companies. These businesses have furnaces that can recycle spent iron or billets for use in other steel mills. Approximately 80% of our equipment is made up of iron, a crucial component. The other is that we can undertake design and fabrication locally. In actuality, we are currently in the process of establishing a factory. While disclosing the company’s plan to diversify, the youthful CEO stated, “We support and help manufacturing firms with weighing, though our core business is actually weighing and packaging.” I’ve grown to love this dream because manufacturing in any industry requires workers to enter and exit manufacturing processes. And any sustainable economy needs manufacturing, especially for SMEs and big corporations. Thus, we must encourage our big population to work in order to eliminate unemployment, “Japa” and crime, the high cost of inflation we are currently seeing, and the dollar crisis we are currently facing with regard to imports. Our overseas partners will help us achieve higher product quality, thus exportation will play a significant role in our operations. All of us yearn to return to the heyday of “the pyramids,” when corn and groundnuts were abundant, and maybe even pyramids used for “manufacturing equipment.” He says that the weighing industry is important, but we are also considering going into the real estate market, which I think has a big gap because so many people are homeless—not because they lack resources at all, but rather because the properties are so pricey and hard to get into. As a result, we are considering medium- and low-cost housing options for the general public. Since we will be supplying regular Nigerians with inexpensive homes—which is the main goal of delivering homes at a reasonable rate—we see it as a kind of cooperative societal duty.
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