Nigerian govt reaffirms vow to revive textile industry ‎

04 Jul '16

3 min read

The Nigerian government has reaffirmed its commitment to revive the lost glory of the country's cotton, textile and garment industry that has become uncompetitive.

At the Textile and Garment Manufacturing conference organised by Africa Fashion Week Nigeria (AFWN) 2016 in Lagos last week, Mrs Aisha Abubakar, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment said that the government was passionate about promoting growth in the industry and across its value chain, according to media reports.

She said that the government would continue to create an enabling environment to promote the ease of doing business and active participation of the private sector to boost production.
She stressed that government initiatives toward stimulating growth in the industry included tax incentives, harmonised tax, infrastructural development and financing.

Abubakar said that the government was looking at creating production hub for Cotton industry and Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) sector.

She said: “Nurtured MSMEs can contribute to GDP, job creation and wealth for the citizens.

“We urge all stakeholders to contribute to economic growth by giving their best so that we can have a Nigeria that we can all be proud of.”

Abiodun Akinkunmi, the Commissioner for Finance, Lagos State said that textile and garment industry had a strategic role to play in economic development.

He said, “Africa is behind in terms of industrialisation because it has become over supplied with garments from China and used clothes from Europe and US sold at give away prices. The low prices rather than boost the African market kills our cultural heritage. Our love for foreign clothes is destroying our economy.”

He urged local manufacturers to improve the standards and quality of their products in order to discourage the dumping of foreign textiles and garments in the country.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association has urged the government to prosecute smugglers to revive the ailing industries in the country.

Director-General of the association, Hamm Kwajaffa who also spoke at the Textile and Garment Manufacturing Conference, said that mere seizure of products was not enough to encourage local production. He said the government should eradicate smuggling to the barest minimum by the diligent prosecution of smugglers and destruction of smuggled goods.

“There should be patronage of locally produced goods by the government at all levels through effective policy. Besides, the unavailability of cotton, which forms the raw material for production, has been a challenge to the textile industry,” he said.

He said that these challenges were the reasons why the manufacturing, especially the textile sector was uncompetitive. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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