Africa: Don’t Kill Textile Sector (Nigeria), Unido Tells FG
Onche Odeh
Nigeria may not have the chance to meet up her agenda to develop its industrial sector if the textile sub-sector is allowed to crumble, Director of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Mr. Masayoshi Matsushita has said.
Although, the UNIDO director has said the country has a chance to rescue the ailing textile sub-sector from going extinct, he said a failure in this regard could prevent the country from achieving any meaningful progress on industrialisation.
Matsushita who said this on Thursday at a workshop organised by UNIDO and the United Nations Communication Team in Nigeria at Kaduna cited studies, which shows that Nigeria’s textile sub-sector performed best about a decade ago as indicating that Nigeria’s industrial sector is witnessing a major retrogression.
According to him, the economy of a country could only be said to be growing in positive light if the earnings per individual is relatively high. This is not the case in Nigeria.
“Nigeria will make very little or no advance if it fails to win the battle to rescue the textile industry from dying,” Matsushita said.
Current statistics from the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association shows that only 25 textile industries are currently operating in Nigeria as against over 175 of them that were operational in the 1980s. Similar records also show that Nigeria currently earns less than $11 million from exportation of textile products per year. The export earning as at five years ago stood at over $44million.
Matsushita linked the dwindling fortune of the textile sub-sector to activities of smugglers, which he said could not be tamed by merely banning importation of textiles. He, however, noted that Nigerians are their own enemies in this regards.
“Made in Nigeria textile are of very high quality, but we see a situation whereby some Nigerians go to China to order for inferior products for importation into the country. If the borders are open to importation, the government could effectively develop channel for screening the quality of textiles that come into the country,” he said.
UNIDO, as revealed by Matsushita, is currently working on ways of reviving the textile sub-sector. This is enshrined in a study which recommendation, Matsushita says would be passed on to the government for implementation.
“We are currently doing a study on how to revive the textile industry in Nigeria. Recommendations would be made in accordance with our findings,” he said.
He said infrastructure development, adequate and constant power supply and port construction is key to industrialisation, just as job creation. It is in view of these that Matsushita said the textile industry remains crucial to the country’s economy.
He said border control in Nigeria has not been efficient, adding, “If there is ban on importation, the smugglers are happy. They stay in the closet during the day and sneak the products through the Seme and Niger border at night.”
He said steady economic growth and stable political situation are vital conditions for Foreign Direct Investments. He also noted that the government must develop generous incentive schemes capacity development programmes if it intends to grow its economy.
(AllAfrica)
Tags: Nigeria