Revival of textile sector on high priority - Minister
19 Nov '09
1 min read
The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Chief Achike Udenwa, is of the opinion that, the textile and its allied sectors have the ability to rise anew from their current depressing state, if provided the correct thrust by the government of Nigeria.
At the peak in the 1980's the textile industry provided direct employment to over 250,000 people and indirect employment to millions like ginneries, farmers, traders etc, which now is a mere shadow of that figure. The current figure is around just 25,000.
He said employment opportunities can be created by only the private sector to the teeming thousands of students who graduate from the colleges, who if not provided employment could indulge in anti-social activities.
He said that the disbursal of the proposed N100 billion Textile Revival Fund would be carefully monitored to take care that only genuine companies benefit from it and advised people not to expect any miracles in the short term.
He said the government on its part was trying to curb the menace of illegal smuggling of textiles and clothing into the country as well as was trying to promote “Made in Nigeria” products which could help in revival of the textile sector.