According to Dr Adesanmi Felix Adeduro, who is the Managing Director of Banquaires Facilities International, a company involved in the promotion of development in African countries has identified a multitude of factors responsible for the de-growth of the textile industry in Nigeria.
He said the biggest bane was the obsolete textile machinery from the early 1960's which were still operational in most of the mills, which consumed a lot of electricity and could not stand up to the cost competitiveness of the imported textile and apparel goods.
He further mentioned that bank interest rates were the highest from amongst all countries in the world, reaching up to 35 percent per annum, which makes operations of any industrial units economic unviable and breakeven impossible.
He was optimistic that the international conference on the textile industry, which his company is organising in September, would address these issues and put textile manufacturers in the country on the path to glory.
The need of the hour is to have an industrial policy, which could help solve the ills affecting the textile sector, like poor roads, multiplicity of taxes and undependable electricity, etc, which could help the domestic industry to stand up to competition from the imported goods, he ended by saying.