Nigeria's RMRDC initiates revival of garment sector

16 Oct 17 2 min read

Nigeria’s Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) has initiated the process of accelerating local production of garments for domestic and international markets to reduce imports. As part of the efforts, the council recently trained cotton farmers and organized a two-day workshop in Kaduna for workers in the cotton, textile and garment sector.

Over 150 members of the Nigerian Tailoring and Fashion Designers Association participated in the workshop organised in collaboration with El-Jahab Mubarak Nigeria Limited.
Advertisement


The country’s textile industry, which had over 250,000 jobs in 1997, is now at an all-time low with less than 20,000 employees, a Nigerian newspaper report quoted to RMRDC director general HD Ibrahim as saying. A recent study showed more textile units are closing down.

Out of more than 250 operational mills in the 1970s, less than 25 are currently in production. Cotton turnover too reduced from NGN 8.2 billion to NGN 300 million between 1980 and 2012.

Ibrahim attributed the bad situation to host of factors, including obsolete machinery, high interest rate, inadequate infrastructure and lack of improvement in the local sourcing of raw materials.

GG Awolehin, deputy director in RMRDC’s planning division, recommended setting up of a national textile council to coordinate affairs of the sector. (DS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

Disclaimer - All News/Articles items are subject to copyright and no article either in full or part may be reproduced in any form without permission from Fibre2Fashion Pvt. Ltd.