A Kano based business mogul Alhaji Muddassir Idriss Abubakar has called on the federal government to formulate a coherent textile policy that would provide an enabling environment to both manufacturers and retailers in the nation’s textile business.
Speaking to newsmen in Kano Thursday, Abubakar said the Nigerian economy had over the years maintained a robust status as a result of the immense contribution of the nation’s textile industries, before they abysmally folded-up for lack of adequate support from successive administrations.
He said retailers in the textile business had a spectacular role to play in becoming employers of labour.
He however stated that the craze for self-employment among the teaming youths roaming the streets of the country could only reach fruition with concerted effort made to provide a lee-way for retailers and manufacturers in the textile business to over- come some intractable obstacles positing that many vibrant textile industries had over the years closed shop as a result of the prevailing energy crisis rocking the nation.
He said” look at my case at present, I am currently supporting hundreds of youths under my custody to survive. My current employment margin stood at 700. If in an event of any eventuality, I happened to find it difficult to operate my business, the 700 people working under me would be automatically laid off. Here you can see the danger”.
Citing the example of Ghana and Gambia as two African countries where textiles’ manufacturers were made to enjoy considerable leverage on tax waver and the provision of sustainable energy for their textile industries to thrive, the Kano based business magnet maintained that there was the compelling need for a similar feat to be replicated in the country for the textile business to flourish.
He further revealed that it would be difficult for the nation’s textile business whether retail or manufacturing to survive under the fangs of excessive tariff and protectionism stressing that Nigeria’s lost glory in the textile sector could only be restored with firm commitment and the introduction of sustainable coherent policy
