The Minister of State for Industry, Senator John Enoh, announced on Wednesday that the federal government is partnering with the Bank of Industry (BoI) and other stakeholders to revive the country’s Cotton Textile and Garment (CTG).
The goal is to put an end to annual garment imports valued at about $4 billion.
Enoh also disclosed that the government will also work with critical financial institutions to facilitate access to finance and machinery for garment and textile businesses.
He made this announcement in Abuja during an engagement with stakeholders in the CTG sector.
Enoh said that the government is committed to reviving the textile industry as part of its commitment to promote Made-in-Nigeria goods.
He said: “We must ask ourselves: do we prioritise cotton, textile, or garments? The reality is that garments stimulate the entire chain. Countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Kenya started by importing textiles but built strong garment export markets that later justified investment in spinning, weaving, and cotton farming.”
The President of the Garment and Accessories Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Adenike Ogunlesi, decried the huge amount Nigerians spend on imported clothing material.
Ogunlesi noted that despite a domestic market valued at over $6.8 billion, the country’s ready-to-wear segment contributes a meagre two per cent to GDP.
She said: “If we could capture just 10 per cent of Bangladesh’s export market, we would generate $3.3 billion in exports and create over a million direct jobs in Nigeria’s garment sector.”
The stakeholders maintained that investment incentives will enable the existing textile and garment firms to retool their capacity, saying this would require the resuscitation of the CTG Fund under BoI to provide financing at competitive rates and attract investment in world-class industrial parks to set up integrated textile and garment factories.
Chief Executive, Afroconsulting Trade and Services Limited, Navdeep Sodhi, argued that the textiles and clothing industry is the cornerstone of development in most developing countries and has a significant socioeconomic impact.
He added that globally more than 100 million people are directly employed in the industry and millions indirectly in the value chain.
He disclosed that with the textile market worth about seven billion dollars, Nigeria is the leading market in the ECOWAS sub-region.
