The federal government’s disclosure that a total of 145 textile companies had shut down operations between 1980 and now due to harsh economic climate has once again reinforced the urgent need for Nigeria to diversify its economy from oil dependency.
The Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar, who made the disclosure during a meeting with members of the Cotton, Textile and Garment Implementation Committee, lamented that the industry, which used to be the highest employer of labour after the government, had become a shadow of itself, employing very few people.
The meeting held in Abuja last week was aimed at reviewing the progress so far made with the implementation of the National Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) Policy.
The Federal Executive Council had on December 17, 2014 approved the CTG policy, which was launched on January 20, 2015, and a National CTG Policy Implementation Committee was subsequently constituted.
At the commencement of the policy, the government said it was targeting a cumulative investment of N255bn between 2015 and 2020. The main thrust of the policy is to reposition the sector as the second largest employer of labour and a revenue earner for the government.
The policy document also states that the economy will witness savings of $2bn in foreign exchange spent importing textiles and garments. According to the document, the policy is expected to increase the level of direct employment in the sector from 50,000 persons in 2015 to 100,000 by 2017. Indirect employment, it added, was also expected to increase from 650,000 people to 1.3 million by 2017.
Speaking with members of the committee, Abubakar said the federal government would take the implementation of the policy seriously as it would assist in revitalising the growth and development of the industry.
She said, “Since our coming on board, I have taken time to understand the policies and programmes of the ministry. We have identified the CTG sector as an important sector for revival in view of the very high potential of job creation along its value chain.
“The CTG sector, which used to be the highest employer of labour next to the government, with over 175 mills at its peak in the 1980s, is now a shadow of itself with barely 30 companies operating presently.”
The Chairperson of the committee, Mrs. Omotanwa Awobokun, said there was a need to address some of the challenges facing the sector. Some of the obstacles, according to her, are funding constraints, smuggling, inadequate power supply, standardisation and the poor yield from cotton seeds.
As part of measures aimed at addressing the issue of smuggling, she said a presidential task force on textile had been set up with a clear mandate to reduce textile smuggling by 15 per cent. The task force, she added, would also carry out diplomatic initiatives to persuade neighbouring countries to support the Nigerian anti-smuggling initiatives.
Between 1985 and 1991, Nigeria’s textile sector recorded an annual growth of 67 per cent and as at 1991, it employed about 25 per cent workers in the nation’s manufacturing sector.
There were 180 textile companies, employing about a million people, it accounted for over 60 per cent of the textile industry capacity in West Africa.
Some of the textiles companies that enjoyed the boom then include Kaduna Textile Ltd (KTL), Arewa Textiles Plc, United Nigerian Textile Plc, Supertex, Nortex Nigerian Ltd and Finetex Nigerian Ltd. Others were Gaskiya Textiles Mill, Kano Textile Ltd, Aba Textiles, Zamfara Textiles Ltd, Asaba Textiles Ltd, African Textile Mill Plc, Tofa Textiles and several others.
The story, however, changed in the early nineties and the sector took a massive dive into an industrial abyss.
The loss of jobs in the sector hit about 100,000 when the largest textile company in the country, the United Textile Mill in Kaduna state closed down with about 5,000 job losses. The collapse of the industry was driven largely by smuggling, failed government policies, high cost of doing business arising from high-priced raw materials, energy costs, and a plethora of challenges, which plagues the investment climate in Nigeria.
It is in this context that Blueprint commends the Muhammadu Buhari government’s zeal at reviving the textile industry. We, however, advise the government to avoid the pitfalls, especially in policy implementation, that had frustrated the efforts of successive administrations in tackling the numerous challenges facing the nation’s textile industry.