THE Minister, Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo has decried the over $4billion bill import bill incurred yearly on textile and apparels, assuring that the government is addressing the challenges facing the cotton industry to create jobs for Nigerians.
The Minister stated this during a visit by the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) in Abuja, stating that the industry has the capacity to transform Nigeria’s rural economy and revive the textile and garment industries by creating over two million jobs.
The revival will also improve internal revenue across the three tiers of government, reduce $4.0 import bill incurred on textile and apparel, earn foreign exchange and make Nigeria a global player in the sector
According to him, “In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, Nigeria was home to Africa’s largest textile industry, with over 180 textile mills which employed close to 450,000 people and contributed over 25 per cent of the workforce in the manufacturing sector, today most of those factories are no longer operational, the ones remaining are operating below 20 per cent capacity with a workforce of less than 20,000 people”.
Adebayo said President Muhammadu Buhari is determined to change the narrative and rewrite the history of Nigeria’s struggling Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) sector. In 2019, the government kicked off the Wet Season Cotton Input Distribution to 150,000 farmers in Katsina under the Anchor Borrowers Programme.
They are cultivating over 180,000 hectares of cotton that will feed our ginneries. Production is also ongoing across many states with more to come onboard in the next planting seasons.
President of NACOTAN, Mr. Anibe Achimugu had called on the Federal Government to revamp the industry to provide jobs for unemployed Nigerians, stressing that if the sector is revived, it would not only help to take youths off the streets but also help to address youth restiveness, banditry, drug abuse and emigration issues.