The transfer by the Federal Authorities to revive the moribund textile and cotton trade in Nigeria is ordinarily a step in the best route, particularly now that Nigerians want jobs. Sadly, authorities officers have over the previous years, mouthed related guarantees with out following up with concrete steps, thus portraying the present hope raised by Vice President Kashim Shettima, as maybe one other false alarm.
Past the rhetoric, the authorities should mobilise all fingers on deck and embark on sensible measures to meet the hope being raised, within the curiosity of the nation and significantly the traumatised economic system. This transfer should not be suffocated just like the earlier resuscitation drives of the previous governments. Political will is required to drive this via.
At a gathering with the Worldwide Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), the Federal Authorities, led by Vice President Shettima, expressed the readiness of Nigeria to collaborate and be certain that the sector breaths once more.
Deliberations from the assembly revealed that from the cotton/textile sector, the goal is to create over 1.4 million jobs yearly with a concentrate on growing key parts of the cotton worth chain comprising farming, weaving, ginning and linking of cotton, all in keeping with the industrialisation drive of the President Bola Tinubu authorities.
Earlier than this new dedication, Nigeria has made some efforts at reviving the textile trade however so much nonetheless must be completed. The textile trade is a viable sector that may present thousands and thousands of jobs for Nigerians. It can also create hundreds of jobs for people concerned in direct and oblique companies alongside the worth chain. It’s a sector that may enhance the nation’s quest for industrialisation.
Checks confirmed that within the Eighties and Nineties, Nigeria had, unarguably, one in all Africa’s largest textile industries with over 180 textile mills functioning optimally, using near over 450,000 employees and contributing over 25 per cent of the workforce within the manufacturing sector. However that’s now historical past as there may be virtually no textile trade within the nation any longer.
This sudden decline exhibits that there’s a want for each the federal and state governments to go to the drafting board, make investments extra within the textile trade and be certain that such investments are well-managed. There should even be private-sector collaboration. That is the extra purpose the ICAC go to and collaboration on the a part of the Federal Authorities is a welcome improvement.
The Govt Director of the ICAC, Eric Trachtenberg, had expressed pleasure in regards to the prospects of Nigeria’s cotton trade, citing a “compelling historic second” for progress and improvement. He famous that Nigeria has low-cost labour, market entry to the African Development and Alternative Act (AGOA) and Financial Partnership Agreements with the EU, and a proficient workforce.
Trachtenberg emphasised ICAC’s dedication to supporting Nigeria obtain its objectives of making high quality jobs, producing international alternate and re-imagining the worldwide cotton economic system.
Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos, who was additionally on the assembly, stated the state was properly positioned to harness alternatives within the cotton worth chain, provided that it hosts the factories, and the market and is a crucial part of the enterprise ecosystem for the cotton sub-sector.
In line with him, Lagos, as an integral a part of the cotton worth chain in Nigeria, would assist each effort by stakeholders to revamp the sector to allow the state to maintain its standing as the biggest style hub on the continent.
The capability of the textile trade in Nigeria has markedly diminished. The sector, which held a lot promise because the bulwark of industrialisation, excessive income earner and a significant employer of labour is presently a shadow of itself. That is significantly evidenced in a number of industrial estates, particularly in Lagos, changing into moribund. These complexes and warehouses have been offered to church buildings and others changed into some sundry uneconomic ventures. The consequence of that is that so many individuals have been despatched again into the already ballooning job market, with the corresponding excessive poverty index.
The textile trade has turn out to be the sufferer of the failure of the state to create a aggressive economic system, create employment, pay residing wages to employees and cater to the welfare of the residents such that their financial standing can be enhanced relative to the wealth of the nation.
Besides pressing measures are taken, the economic system is sliding dangerously down the cliff and the social implications of this stage of penury is the progressive push of the interior battle triggers to a flamable stage. The August 1, 2024 #EndBadGovernance protest ought to warn the federal government to sort out youth unemployment extra significantly. China and India used their processed cotton supplies to compete favourably within the worldwide market, and nothing is stopping Nigeria from replicating the identical, with the best dedication.
Sadly, Nigeria’s textile trade misplaced steam because of the import substitution insurance policies of assorted administrations that promoted choice for cheaper, extremely subsidised imported manufacturers. Nigerian firms that have been doing very properly within the sector couldn’t survive international competitors.
Painfully, even when the USA of America put in place the AGOA, a chunk of laws that was authorized by that nation’s legislature, The Congress, in Might 2000, Nigeria couldn’t partake in the advantages of that laws the aim of which was to help the economies of sub-Saharan Africa and to enhance financial relations between the USA and the area. One of many key parts of AGOA was the growth of market entry for textile and attire items into the USA.
However with ICAC recognising the significance of AGOA and able to bridge foreseeable gaps, the Federal Authorities ought to again the transfer and clamp down on smuggling that operators say accounts for 80 per cent of the native market in defiance of a ban and import restrictions. There needs to be incentives for gamers in that sub-sector.
Nigeria’s funding local weather needs to be conducive with attendant tax waivers, good roads, safety and a secure energy provide. There’s a have to push the ‘Nigerianess’ agenda and the Federal Authorities ought to lead the patronise ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ items marketing campaign.
There must also be ample coaching for these concerned within the manufacturing course of on fashionable practices. Using cutting-edge applied sciences can be crucial in reviving the sector.
