By: Remi Emeka Njoku
2005-05-09 09:46:05

Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of Diamond Bank Limited, Paschal Dozie has reassured on the preparedness of his bank to successfully execute the restructuring/reactivation of Modern Ceramic Industries Limited (MOCERAM), Umuahia, Abia State, to make it a more viable company.
The bank, Fucceli Ceramic Machines Industries of Italy and UCL Resources and Investment Company Limited have initiated turnaround activities for the ceramic industry under the small and medium Industries Equity Investment Scheme (SMIEIS).
Diamond Bank, which is the financial adviser to the project, is currently finalising a technical partnership with Fuccelli industries for the purpose of resuscitating the giant ceramic company. The turnaround project is estimated to cost $6 million.
According to Dozie, the turnaround would take about nine months to complete before production starts, while operation and manufacturing will start before May 2007.
“We have sent somebody down who will be on site to start getting things to shape. Once we start, it will be nine months after which the factory will be in production, or at least, in a test-run stage,” he said, adding that the technical men will arrive Umuahia in the next quarter of the year.
He said like any other good project, the ceramic industry when in full operation will create employment.
“It will add to our contribution to the economy that helped in the establishment of an industry that will create employment. Once we have a good economy, that means that we have good customers who are going to patronise the products.”
MOCERAM was established in 1963 by the government of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria with an installed capacity of 1000 metric tonnes of ceramic products, mainly sanitary wares for the Real Estate sector. In 1967 the factory was shutdown due to the Nigerian Civil War and was reactivated in 1975 with funds from the then East Central State Government.
In 1982, the company embarked on an expansion programme to increase capacity to meet the rising demand for ceramic products. But the expansion programme was eventually shelved in 1996 due to lack of adequate resources on the part of the Abia state government.
Following failed efforts by the State Government to raise the necessary funds to keep the factory running, the company was acquired by UCL Resources & Investment Company Limited in 2003.
The acquisition of the company by UCL Resources, the investment vehicle of the Umuahia Diocese of the Catholic Church, has been hailed as a unique development in the move toward putting the private sector in the driver’s seat of the economy.
With the evolving partnership between Diamond Bank and Fuccelli Industries, Modern Ceramic Industries Limited is hopeful to obtain the requisite capital as well as technical input to conclude its restructuring and turnaround programmes and bounce back to production.
Fuccelli has been manufacturing equipment for the ceramics industry in Italy since 1970.  The expatriate team will be involved in the reactivation of the sprawling ceramic company in partnership with Diamond Bank as the financial adviser.
A five man team of the consortium of Italian companies led by Bruno Fuccelli is currently on a site tour of MOCERAM and the company’s raw material sites in Nigeria.
From the commencement of the Small and Medium Industries Equity Investment Scheme (SMIEIS) in August 2001 till year end 2004, Diamond Bank has invested over N560 million in small scale industries by way of equity injection and medium to long term loan facilities