Leather Vs Ponmo

In Nigeria, we consume multi million dollars worth of leather daily inform of ponmo. Most of us don’t know the origin of ponmo or how it all started as part of our daily meal but somehow, Nigerians found a special way of converting cow skin to be highly pleasant to the taste.

Checkout BBC’s article Nigeria is eating it’s leather industry

I always wonder if we could boost our economy by using cow skin or other animal skins for fine products like jackets, shoes, bags, belt, etc. Amongst the major tribes of Nigeria, it’s common among Yoruba to consume ponmo specially spiced with pepper and it’s really appetizing especially if it’s drenched in pepper sauce. I don’t think we are ready to give up ponmo for leather anytime soon.

Is Ponmo the best product we can get from a cow skin? Can we make the economy better by consuming ponmo?

We kill at least 12,500 cows daily in Nigeria and i believe it’s high time we begin to look into how to convert these cow skins into fine leathers to generate wealth for our dear nation and ourselves.

We should be asking ourselves if the sale of ponmo is better than using the cow skins for leather. We could be building our own genuine leather products and export them to other countries.

We as Nigerians should begin to look into how to make our nation better by using our resources wisely.