During a regional vocational skill competition in Kaduna organised by BoI in partnership with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Waheed Olagunju, BoI's executive director, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) said, the failure to implement the recommendation on increasing cotton production was the prime reason for the downfall. He further added that lack of lubricants added to the woes of the companies.

Olagunju disclosed that the CTG scheme, which was launched in the year 2010, had provision to fund up to 100 billion Nigerian naira, and about 60 per cent of this amount was disbursed to industries in that sector before being converted to equity. He said the industries did not perform well despite of the funding because the recommendations were not implemented properly.

“You will agree with me that funding is only one of the factors of production, there are other things that go with running a successful industrial enterprise. The bank made money available, but other recommendations were not implemented,” he said.

“If other recommendations were implemented alongside the funding, it would have led to the revival of the CTG sector,” he added.

Olagunju also said that the Nigerian economy is experiencing shortages in terms of the required manpower needed to operate the industries. (NA)

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India