- From 175 companies in 1980 to 25 in 2019 - FG wades in with N100b interventions - Security outfits to source uniforms from local coy - Interventions can create massive jobs-Experts
ginning components including sourcing improved seeds for the cotton farmers.
The recent efforts by the government are capable of revamping the sector, which some experts said could overhaul the nation’s economy.
Cotton farmers, who spoke with Daily Trust on phone, said the intervention by the CBN in the area of input supply was fast changing their perspectives on cotton farming.
FG’s intervention can create massive jobs-experts
The Director-General of the RMRDC, Professor Hussaini Ibrahim, is of the opinion that if the current efforts by the government are sustained, the sector would be revamped and more job opportunities would be available for the teeming un-employed population.
He is of the opinion that with the recent efforts Nigeria could become self-sufficient in long staple cotton fibre, synthetic yarn, dyestuff, bleaches and other chemical inputs as the import bills of the items tend to make nonsense of the textile sector’s claim to local resourcebased status.
According to him, there is
also the need for local production of good quality suiting and shirting materials which are essential base fabrics for wearing apparel, noting that the quality of these products currently produced locally, can at best, be used for making uniforms or satisfy the needs of the low- and middle-income earners.
He also reiterated the need for active participation in the world market as a major criteria for the success of the local textile industry in the 21st century, adding that the industry should be the leading exporter of nonoil goods in the country.
Another expert, Dr Toyin Isiah, while welcoming proposed interventions by the government, observed that modern textile production is a capitalintensive activity, requiring huge financial outlay, noting that raising the required finance is very difficult particularly now that development banks are illiquid. Moreover, the procurement of adequate working capital from the banking system is a major problem especially in the wake of tight liquidity in the system.
The RMRDC DG stressed that smuggling/dumping is the largest threat to the existing textile manufacturers, noting that the practice is flourishing because of the permissiveness of Nigeria’s immediate neighbours and the laxity of the country’s border control which gives smugglers and their agents a thoroughfare into the country.
“The local textile firms are facing serious marketing problems as a result of the combined effects of smuggling, dumping and low consumer demand emanating from declining real incomes and weak purchasing power. Even the ECOWAS market which absorbs about 25% of Nigeria’s finished textile products has been on the decline following the devaluation of the CFA Franc, which has made Nigerian fabrics relatively costly.
“Lack of competitiveness has also prevented the industry from taking advantage of its limited export quota to the AGOA market,” the RMRDC DG also said.
To promote the development and resuscitation of the textiles sector, the experts are of the opinion that there is need for government to expedite the completion of key industrial projects such as in iron and steel, machine tools, and petrochemicals to aid the process of industrial backward integration; promote cotton cultivation generally and fund cotton research to ensure development of long staple cotton fibres.
They noted that the CTG sector, which is heavily raw materialsdriven, can transform the economy of the country as the textile industry worldwide has high potential for value-added raw materials to finished good.
For Nigeria to reduce the overreliance on imported raw materials and products and be able to open new markets, the experts observed the need to strengthen the existing institutional framework and develop new strategies to realize the potentials of the sector.
Among activities urgently required are to promote science and innovation researches to address the needs of the textile sector and enhance policy and fiscal measures such as incentives, tariffs, taxes, access to credits, grants and adequate infrastructural facilities, they said.