Brief description of the project

The leather products cottage industry across the country is faced with major challenges of skills and tools. The project aims at training and equipping of leather artisans across the country and will provide them with the necessary skills and tools. This is aimed at transforming the cottage industry from shoe repairing and low production to actual manufacturing of new shoes and other leather products. To put the enterprises on a growth path the entrepreneurs will be trained on basic entrepreneurial skills.

 The training and equipping of the leather artisans will provide them with enhanced capacity to produce competitive quality products in increased quantities that are acceptable by the current market. The project also will promote hand made products to fit specific requirements such footwear for people with special needs.

These products will complement our focus towards import substitution.

The project includes: –

• Mapping of leather artisans engaged in footwear and leather goods manufacture across the country.
• Developing a curriculum to address the skills requirement.
• Partnering with Numerical Machines Corporation for the production of tools.
• Training of trainers and operators
• Providing appropriate tools.
• Creating a network of trained leather artisans for follow up and monitoring.

Project Purpose

• To improve the skills and productivity of leather Artisans across the Country.
• To increase the production and improve the quality of locally made leather products.
• To promote import substitution in the leather sector.

The Project Details: –

The project targets leather artisans operating in different areas for skills development and provision of appropriate tools. A total No of 6000 leather artisans will be trained and equipped. The tools provided will include the basic requirement to start off production. Each trainee will be expected to go through basic footwear and leather goods production that will include: –

• Cutting and stitching
• Manual/mechanical assembly and finishing.
• Product development and costing.
• Basic entrepreneurial skills equipment that would offer cutting and stitching services.

The tools will include the following: –

Cutting and skiving knives, hand stitching tools, leather embroidery and pattern making kit and leather finishing kit. .

The project outcomes will be: – 

• Creation of 6,000 shoe making enterprises that will create an extra 6,000 direct jobs and approximately 30,000 indirect ones
• Wealth creation and poverty alleviation amongst rural Centres. 
• Massive entrepreneurship spin-off possibilities and effects.
• Value addition and diversification of the product range.
• Improvement in quality and quantity of products.
• Streamlining the products into the formal market outlets. Reduction of national dependence on imported footwear and leather products, and thereby also saving on foreign exchange.