Textile sector requires urgent revival – FG

The Federal Government has said the textile industry subsector requires very urgent revival to increase its contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said this yesterday in Abuja during the 6th International Conference & 9th AGM of the Textile Researchers Association of Nigeria (TRAN) .

Represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Mr Bitrus Bako Nabasu, Dr Onu said in view of its underperformance, the textile industry in the country needed more intervention from both the public and private sectors.

He said the Muhammadu Buhariled administration was placing much emphasis on reviving the textile sector.

“It is painful if one remembers that the textile sector was the mainstay of the Nigerian economy in the 1980s, providing jobs with a turnover, at the time, of over N8.9 billion, which represented more than 20% of our Gross Domestic Product. This explains why Buhari’s administration is placing much emphasis on reviving the textile sector,” the minister said.

In his address, the Director General of Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Dr Hussaini Doko Ibrahim, said the textile sector when revived is capable of providing up to 700,000 jobs to Nigerians.

He also said the sector could contribute as high as 25% to the country’s GDP if the right things were done to revive it.

He said “the desired revival of the lost glory of the sector rests on the proactiveness of the stakeholders at both upstream and downstream of the value chain.”