Leaky basket

Editorial

It is not about the textile industry alone, yet the news story that Nigeria’s textile import increased by 257.9 per cent during the first quarter of 2021 is another evidence of the futility of Nigeria’s drive to make Nigerian things for Nigerians and in the process put us in charge of the Nigerian economy.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has put in place a number of measures to ensure that the Nigerian textile industry returns to its glory days of the 1970’s and 1980’s, and put at bay the incursions of foreign fabrics with its deleterious effects not only on foreign exchange but its ancillary impact on the economy.

As it is with the textile industry, so it has been with all industries. The level of compliance with foreign exchange rules point to two flaws in the Nigerian setting. One, the Nigerian state has failed to rein in the excesses of the importing community, and this has become worse.

Two, Nigerians have done little to pare their tastes for all things exotic. Both factors point the country to an inexorable slide not only in foreign exchange standing but in such areas as unemployment, manufacturing, distribution and retailing.

This is the same country where the textile industry was a verve of boom, especially in the big cities of Kano, Kaduna and Lagos, and whole swathes of market were devoted to its prosperity. They are a shadow of their past today, and so it is with a slew of economic sectors.

Today, the narrative is about imports. China now leads the way in ferrying in textile materials, accounting for over 60 percent, while India also makes up a huge chunk of 21 percent. Some come from Europe, especially Switzerland.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, Nigeria raked in N200.6 billion worth of goods at the end of the third quarter of 2020 alone, with barely over N5 billion worth of export.

Stakeholders of the textile industry believe that if Nigeria were able to capture just a tithe of the over $4billion of textile fabrics that pour into the country annually, we should be able to manoeuvre our way back as a ramrod of the nation’s economy.

Yet it is not without government trying. The CBN has been investing in the textile industry, and it has set aside about N100 billion for that purpose.

It is obvious that funding is not the problem, and if we must handle it, the infrastructure and corruption in the Nigerian system must be reduced drastically. One is the handling of the borders. Just as rice has found its way into the country in spite of all the restrictions, textile materials have not been immune.

This suffocates local initiative. We are experiencing the irony of a sort of renaissance in Nigerian fashion industry today, a boom of designs and colourful array of clothing styles tapping into traditional culture. Yet, the raw material comes from abroad. The other irony is that cotton grows in 26 out of 36 states in Nigeria whose sub-region, West Africa, ranks fifth in the world. It is excess of production but a lean internal demand because of the penchant for things foreign. The CBN said in recent years it has provided not less than $300 million in loans. This makes it difficult not only for the farmers but also the CBN to make economic sense of a loan that problematises servicing.

Until we are serious about making the borders serve our economy rather than our economy serve the goons that manipulate it, we shall continue to embark on fruitless rigmarole. Investing in the textile industry as a bellwether to revive local content in the economy will be akin to pouring water into a leaky basket.