Paying lip service to textile industry revival

The recent disclosure by the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, that the textile industry sub-sector required very urgent revival to increase its contribution to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) sounded like a broken record.

Speaking through his Permanent Secretary, Mr. Bitrus Nabasu, at the 6th International Conference and 9th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Textile Researchers Association of Nigeria (TRAN) held in Abuja, Dr. Onu stressed that in view of its underperformance, the industry needed more intervention from both the public and private sectors.

He assured that the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration was placing much emphasis on reviving the textile sub-sector. He noted that it was painful “if one remembers that the textile sector was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy in the 80s, providing jobs with a turnover of over N8.9bn which represented more than 20 per cent of our Gross Domestic Product”. In his address, the Director-General of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, Dr. Hussaini Ibrahim, said the textile subsector when revived, is capable of providing up to 700,000 direct jobs to Nigerians.

He said the desired revival of the lost glory of the industry “rests on the pro-activeness of the stakeholders at both the upstream and downstream of the value chain.” Since the collapse of the industry in the 80s, the sector has been running the gauntlet, as it were, especially since the nation returned to democratic governance in 1999.

The administrations of Obasanjo and Yar’Adua made commitments to revive the sub-sector but they had nothing to show for their intentions. In particular, the Jonathan administration instituted a N100bn Intervention Fund in 2010 for the Cotton, Textiles and Garment (CTG) industries to revive the textile sub-sector. But the initiative suffered the same fate.

Then a year ago, the present federal government also set aside N51bn in the 2017 budget to promote the development of the CTG industries. The fund was intended to boost the government’s efforts at economic diversification and massive job creation as well as increase the patronage of made-in-Nigeria apparels.

The Minister of Trade and Industries, Aisha Abubakar, said as part of efforts to promote the development of the sector, the federal government had decided to dedicate three out of the six special economic zones created last year to the textile and garment sector. She explained that the government was working hard to support the industry through massive investment in infrastructure, noting that this would assist in bringing down the price of cotton.

The industry passed through various phases of growth and until the 1980s, it was one of the most vibrant in the world. Between 1985 and 1991, the sector recorded an annual growth of 67 per cent and it employed about 25 per cent workers in the nation’s manufacturing sector.

 There were 180 textile companies, providing over one million direct and indirect jobs. It also accounted for over 60 per cent of the textile industry capacity in West Africa. Some of the textile companies that enjoyed the boom then included Kaduna Textile Ltd (KTL), Arewa Textiles Plc, United Nigerian Textile Plc, Supertex, Nortex Nigerian Ltd and Finetex Nigerian Ltd. Others were Gaskiya Textiles Mill, Kano Textile Ltd, Aba Textiles, Zamfara Textiles Ltd, Asaba Textiles Ltd, African Textile Mill Plc, Tofa Textiles and several others.

 The collapse of the industry was driven largely by smuggling, failed government policies, high cost of doing business arising from high-priced raw materials, energy costs, and a plethora of challenges which plagues the investment climate in Nigeria.

As at the dawn of the millennium, only about 25 textile companies were functional in the country with widespread concerns that even those functioning were barely managing to survive as the operating environment became, to put it mildly, utterly unfriendly.

The current capacity utilisation in the industry is only 30 per cent of installed capacity and this development has allowed for the thriving of imported, mostly smuggled counterfeited textile products, into the country. In view of the impact the sub-sector can make on the socioeconomic development of the country, we urge the federal government to show more serious commitment towards reviving the sub-sector.

It should address all the challenges that led to the collapse of the job-spinning industry. Critical among them is constant power supply. Any initiative to breathe life into the moribund mills should be pursued to its logical conclusion.

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