The Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga recently commissioned the Shongai Packaging Plastics Industries Limited, a state-of-the-art, flexible packaging and printing plant; and the Shongai Recycling Plant, both located in Sango-Otta, Ogun State. The two plants were financed by the Bank of Industry (BOI) and are owned by the SONA Group.
The acting Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Bank of Industry, Mr. Waheed Olagungu, who represented the Honourable Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment at the ceremony, commended the board and management of the SONA Group for their implicit confidence in the Nigerian economy, as evidenced by their considerable investments in Nigeria over the past three decades.
He advised the Group, through its Chairman, Mr. A. K. Mirchandani, to deepen its foothold in the Nigerian economy by aligning its business development strategies with the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) that was launched by President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014. This, the acting MD/CEO, BOI, said, would enable the Group reap higher returns on current and future investments in Nigeria and subsequently create more jobs for Nigerians, amongst other development impact on the national economy.
Responding, the SONA Group Chairman, Mr. A. K. Mirchandani disclosed that as a manifestation of the Group’s strong faith in the Nigerian economy, the Group would be commissioning three more plants before the end of the year, which will further deepen its investment drive in the Nigerian manufacturing sector in line with Nigeria’s economic development aspirations. According to him, the Group plans to increase its total investment in Nigeria by N200 million over the next three years in addition to the cumulative sum of N125 billion that had been invested since it commenced operations in Nigeria in 1981.
The Chairman also confirmed that the Group had benefitted immensely from the Federal Government’s initiatives for the manufacturing sector, including the CBN Intervention Funds, reserving special mention for the Bank of Industry. In his words, “Bank of Industry has always played a continued modeling role, activating and motivating themselves and they have always supported the industry because if not for them, it is impossible for the company to sustain the cost of its operations.”
The SONA Group Nigeria is a conglomerate of different companies with focus on manufacturing that currently employs more than 2,000 workers. Its recently commissioned ultramodern flexible packaging plant with 5-layer blown film that has been described as the first of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa was established to make made-in-Nigeria products globally competitive due to attractive and durable packaging while the Shongai Recycling Plant was established to collect plastic garbage from the environment and use them as 100% re-processed materials for production of plastic pallets and sundry products for local use and export to ECOWAS countries.