The National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGWN) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure a holistic revival of the industry in Nigeria.
The president of the union comrade John Adaji and the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole while speaking at the 32nd Annual National Education Conference of the union and the commemoration of 2020 Africa Industrialisation Day, warned that Nigeria must learn from past mistakes of various trade agreements in the implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).
In his address, comrade Adaji said Nigeria must seek to ensure that implementation of the new trade, Agreement does not undermine current efforts at industrial revival particularly in relation to the Textile and Garment industry.
He recalled that the country’s uncritical membership of World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1997 with an attendant massive lowering of tariffs through wholesale trade liberalization led to a massive collapse of labour-intensive industries like textiles due to unfair competition.
According to him, one of the major problems of the textile industry today is smuggling, stressing that “Fair trade within the AfCFTA and the current and future jobs in our textile and garment industries will be further devastated if African customs authorities across the board do not properly manage their borders to prevent a flood of illicit imports from abroad into Africa and the breaking and undermining of rules.”
He said African nations and Nigeria, in particular, must work together to attract investment, grow local manufacturing and combat smuggling.
“Many believe that AfCFTA when fully implemented could be a critical breakthrough to improving intra-regional trade, cross border trade and economic integration, creating jobs and contributing to the sustainable industrialisation of the continent. But the truth is that Africa has never been short of economic and policy documents.
The African trade and investment policy landscape is littered with failed grand plans and ambitious policies that have not succeeded in bringing about much-needed trade.”
The NUTGWN President also tasked President Buhari to ensure holistically implementation of the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) to revive the textile industry.
He said COVID-19 pandemic has set the industry many steps backwards, just as he expressed appreciation on the direct intervention by the CBN to ameliorate the impact of the crisis on the economy and the textile industry in particular.
“We call on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure holistic implementation of the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) policy to fully revive the sector. Textile Industry remains a critical plank for addressing the current unemployment challenges in the Country,” he said.
Oshiomhole in his presentation further warned that unless there is improved policing of the border, the country could be flooded with cheap textile materials at the expense of local manufacturers.
He recalled that a waiver granted to importers of textile materials during the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration led to the collapse of textile mills in Nigeria
