The Nation Newspaper

Tag: textile workers

  • Textile workers knock governors for abandoning pension scheme

    • Hail Buhari on Micro Pension Plan

    THE National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria has condemned  governors yet to implement the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS), saying they have no excuse 15 years after the scheme kicked off.

    Speaking with reporters in Abuja, the union’s Secretary-General, Comrade Issa Aremu, lamented that 19 governors were yet to domesticate the scheme. He said this was against the Pension Reform Act of 2014.

    He lamented that while some governors were finding it difficult to sign their workers onto the scheme, they  had devised ways of making political offices pensionable.

    Aremu faulted the practice where governors after serving for two terms of eight years become entitled to pension.

    This, he noted, is against the International Labour Law, which prescribed 10 years for a worker to be entitled to a pension.

    He said: “We are excited that we are having an inclusive pension scheme. What will make the scheme sustainable depends on the success we have recorded from those who have really been in the scheme.

    “Even for the formal sector, there is still so much work to be done. We  have about seven million workers covered and for the formal sector, that is not enough and I see some private sector employers that are not part of the scheme.

    “The one that is not acceptable is that some state government have not subscribed to the scheme. As at the last count, only 17 states had signed to the Contributory Pension Scheme.

    “This is a compulsory scheme and it should go round. I think the organised labour has to do more because if we are concerned about life at work through wages. We should also be concerned with life after work using pension.”

    He added that civil servants in many states were not covered, noting that this implied that when they left work, they would not have much to fall back on.

    He added: “This is unacceptable because these are governors who decided to make a non-pensionable job of two terms to be pensionable and this is a scandal that must be interrogated.

    “They all copy these laws to make two-term governors collect pensions to death. This is against the labour law, which states that one must work for a minimum of ten years to be able to get a pension. Two terms for governors are eight years.”

    He called on the National Pension Commission to intensify its enforcement mechanism so that many workers would be captured in the  scheme.

    “The pension scheme has guaranteed regular payment for our members. We, in the NLC, are not only advocating minimum wage for those who are working but we want a minimum pension for pensioners.

    “The large army of workers are in the informal sector and they have been excluded from the scheme. They need to think of life after work because this micro pension is vital for the workers.

    “This scheme should be able to cover 80 million people in the workforce and the informal sector covers about 70 per cent of the organised private sector.”

    Aremu, however, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the Micro Pension Plan, which extends retirement benefits to informal sector workers.

    According to him, the President’s stamp would legitimise the CPS for informal and informal sectors.

    “If implemented, pension coverage will be more inclusive to include millions of self-employed who for now are not assured of life after work no less they are assured of life during work due to income inadequacy.

    “There will be sustainable investable funds for socio-economic development. So far, with as many as 8.5 million formal sector workers covered, as much as N8.7 trillion pension assets have been accumulated.

    “With potential 80 million workforce, the potential for accumulated workers’capital is better imagined. Micro pension is certainly a sustainable measure against mass income poverty that has pushed workers in both formal and informal sectors into the abyss of poverty.

    “With the micro pension launch and expected attendant increase in pension assets, there is no doubt that the nation is also assured of investable funds for poverty alleviation as well as wealth generation,” he said.

  • Textile workers seek reduction of exchange rate

    •’200 firms have shut’

    The Textile, Garments & Tailoring Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (TGTSSAN) has appealed to the Federal Government to reduce the exchange rate, particularly for the the textile sector.

    Its President, Ambi Karu, said the  textile sector has been performing dismally for many years,  attributing it to the difficulty in sourcing foreign exchange at affordable rate to enable investors import machines and other equipment for operation.

    He said: “More than 200 textile firms have been shut as a result of systemic challenges, while some have reduced their production, staff strength and remuneration of workers.

    “In fact, more than half of the surviving firms are classified as ailing, thus posing serious threat to the survival of the manufacturing sector. Without much discussion on this, you can see that the major challenge facing the sector is the inability of manufacturers to access foreign exchange as a result of its exorbitant rate coupled with its acute scarcity, which has been restricting the ability of manufacturers to import raw materials for production, as well as import necessary machines and spare parts.”

    Kanu said inadequate infrastructure, especially power, has resulted to the closing of many textile firms since they could not operate at high cost of production and remain in business.

    On the  influx of textile materials  the union chief said there was nothing stoping the government from putting a legislation in place to support the industry.

    He said there should be a policy to ban cheap textile materials imports, saying the borders should be patrolled by Customs officials to prevent smuggling.

    “The Nigeria Customs Service should be patriotic enough and eschew the act of conniving with smugglers to ruin the industry by allowing smuggled materials into the market,” he said.

    He pointed out that the ban foreign materials import would protect  indigenous firms, which would in turn,  strive to produce textiles of international standard. He urged the government to encourage made-in-Nigeria products, adding that this would boost the sector.

    He said: “You will recall that the “Made-in-Nigeria policy as applied to the auto industry was an aspect of the National Automotive Industry Plan.

    “That plan received broad-based acceptability by stakeholders, including the auto-producers. As good as that plan may be, it was not implemented to its letter and spirit. In our sector, it is not going to be the same given the fact that the cost of buying textile materials is never the same as that of buying automobiles. And don’t forget that our local textile manufacturers are really competing with their foreign counterparts.”

    Karu said there was the need for the government to formulate policies that would guarantee continuous survival of the textile industry in the country and ensure the effective implementation of the policies through the declaration of a “National Dressing Day” in local fabrics.

    “The implementation would boost the textile industry through influencing Nigerians to wear and decorate African fabrics. Apart from a special day, Nigerians should be encouraged to be adorning locally made textile such as Ankara to work during the week days; not only on Fridays, and weekends.”

    He said there was nothing wrong for the government to give the local textile firms a 90 per cent rebate on cost of generated power.

    He said this was necessary because between 30 per cent and 35 per cent of textile and garment manufacturing costs were energy-related.

    “In fact, the government should even consider giving the textile plants zero percent CBN interest loan to build embedded power plants or pipelines to get gas to their factories,” he said.

  • Textile workers laud Buhari’s commitment to diversify economy

    Textile workers laud Buhari’s commitment to diversify economy

    Textile workers have commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his commitments to diversify the Nigerian economy, fix local refineries, provide N500 billion conditional cash for the vulnerable, while tasking him on industrialisation to create jobs and boost the economy.

    The General Secretary of National Union of Textile Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTW), Comrade Issa Aremu, said the commitment of government has shown that the Buhari administration is ready to provide the people with good governance.

    He said: “We agree with President Muhammadu Buhari that a strong currency is predicated on a strong economy. Industrialisation therefore remains the key to economic recovery for Nigeria, lessening of dependency on imports, thus saving scarce foreign exchange. It also serves as a source of employment for greater number of the population and invariably reduces income poverty.

    “The Federal Government must accord urgent attention to the revival of labour intensive industries such as textile and garment. The industry can employ 3 million direct jobs. 26 out of the 36 states grow cotton of both long and short staple lengths. Sadly, Nigeria has become a dumping ground for mostly smuggled fabrics and even second-hand banned unhealthy cloths.

    “We must overcome infrastructural inadequacy, electricity supply, smuggling, low patronage, counterfeiting and faking, raw materials among others. President Buhari must convene stakeholders meeting on textile with a view of implementing the Nigeria industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) and the National Cotton, Textile and Garment policy.

    “The solution to the problems in the downstream sector is not importation of petrol but building domestic local refinery. Labour supports President Buhari on the need to save foreign exchange by fast tracking repair of the refineries and producing most of our fuel requirements at home.  Nigeria must take advantage of the multiple benefits of crude oil by fixing existing local refineries, exploring local refining capacity and building petrochemical and gas plants and create sustainable mass decent jobs.

    “We commend President Muhammadu Buhari for the successful launching of N500 billion as direct social transfers or conditional cash transfer program for the poorest and most vulnerable, social intervention programmes in five key areas that include providing job creation opportunities for 500, 000 teachers and one 100, 000 artisans across the nation.

    “Labour salutes the socially sensitive policy that would feed 5.5 million children with nutritious meals through school feeding programme to improve learning outcomes, as well as enrolment and completion rates.

    “Labour condemns the recent spate of attacks on oil and power installations by some militants in the Niger Delta and called on the militants to return to the path of dialogue to resolve all conflicts.  All Nigerians and indeed all Africans are worse of with serial economic sabotage.  Indeed assaults on oil and gas assets push Nigeria into deeper underdevelopment.”

     

  • ‘70 % of textile workers lose jobs to fake products’

    Over 70 per cent of textile workers in Nigeria have lost their jobs to closure of textile manufacturing companies and fake clothing materials from China, just as global counterfeiting estimate  could hit N1.7trilion by next year, an Executive of International Trademark Association (INTA), Lara Kayode, has said.

    Speaking on the sidelines of a stakeholders’ summit on counterfeiting of products in Nigeria, Lara, whose organisation is committed to curbing the proliferation of counterfeiting goods through advocacy, said  companies and manufacturers have lost huge revenue to the activities of fake producers.

    She said: “Findings reveal that over 70 per cent of textile workers in Nigeria have lost their jobs to closure of manufacturing companies and the emergence of counterfeiting products from China.’’

    Lara, also a Principal Partner O.K. Kayode & Co, said billions of naira had been lost to fake clothing materials, mostly from China. She said since 2001,   many textile firms have closed due to bad economy, failure of the Federal Government to regulate importation of goods to the country, porous borders, among other issues.

    Also, the Director-General, Consumers Protection Council(CPC), Dupe Atoki, said plans were underway to establish consumers protection council department in all major institutions across the country to fight the menace.

    She said it was expensive to push laws in the National Assembly, noting that the government was doing a lot to ‘curb counterfeiters through policies and legislations. She said there was the need for stakeholders to unite and see how they would use lobby to influence the passage of laws and to stop incidence of fake products in the country.

    “We are working with the Standard Organisation of Nigeria(SON) on how to provide strong enforcement programs to halt the trend. Very soon, the two bodies would go to town to provide strong implementation mechanisms on the issue of fake products,’’ she added.