The Nation Newspaper

Tag: textile

  • Textile makers to MDAs: implement buy made-in-Nigeria order

    The Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA), has faulted the non-implementation of the Federal Government’s Executive Order on patronage of Made-in-Nigeria goods.

    NTMA Director-General, Mr Hamma Kwajaffa, said in Lagos, that in spite of government’s intention to revive the textile sector, the reality on ground remains worrisome. He revealed that the nation spends over $4 billion annually importing textiles and readymade clothing.

    He reiterated that wholesome patronage of local goods would reduce the import bill of the nation besides creating jobs and boosting the economy.

    He regretted that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), are yet to heed government order to patronise locally made products, towards enhancing the growth of the manufacturing sector and the nation’s economy.

    It will be recalled that the Federal Government on May 25, 2017, signed the Executive Order on support for local content in public procurement by the government.

    It said the Order would boost local production, improve business environment, promote entrepreneurship and give the country a positive trade balance.

    Kwajaffa said based on the Order, many textile manufacturers stocked up their inventory in expectation of a sales boom, but are yet to get patronage from the various ministries.

    “We expected purchase from the Ministry of Defense, the Police, Immigration, Prisons and others, but they have not contacted us. Our people geared up for mass production, our stores are filled, we expected a boom, but nobody is buying the fabrics and other requirements,” he added.

    He urged the government to expedite the passage of 2018 Budget, adding that officials from some of the ministries attributed lack of patronage of textiles to paucity of fund. Kwajaffa noted that the 2017 Budget had to be shored up through borrowing.

  • Kano to establish textile park

    Kano to establish textile park

    Kano State government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Shandong Ruyi Technology Group of China for the establishment of $600million Textile Industrial Park in Kano.

    The Secretary to the State Government, Alhaji Usman Alhaji and the company’s Chairman, Mr. Yafu Qiu, signed the agreement at the weekend at the company’s headquarters in Jining, Shandong, China.

    Shandong Ruyi is China’s leading innovative technology textile enterprise and the planned multi-million dollar investment in Kano will be its biggest in Africa, upon completion.

    Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, who had visited one of the group’s factories, described the event as “the biggest foreign direct investment expected in the state in recent times.”

    The Chairman of Ruyi Group, Mr. Yafu Qiu, said the investment was to hasten growth and support global development, adding that having the governor to come for the signing of the MoU boosted his confidence in the implementation of the project.

  • $15m lifeline coming for Kaduna Textile

    The New Nigeria Development Company (NNDC) is partnering Sur International Textile (SIT), a Turkish firm, to invest $15 million to reactivate the collapsed Kaduna Textile Company.

    NNDC Group Managing Director Dr Ahmed Musa made this known to reporters, shortly after a meeting with the Turkish business delegation at the NNDC’s head office in Kaduna.

    Musa said the NNDC and SIT would invest the amount to revitalise the textile company. According to the proposal, the Turkish firm will provide 35 per cent of the amount, the Federal Government, 45 per cent, and KTL will give 20 per cent.

    Musa said in the short term, the KTL would produce uniforms for the Nigerian Armed Forces, the Police and other paramilitary agencies in the country, and across West African.

    He said revamping the KTL would boost Kaduna State economy and create employment for the unemployed within and outside the state.

    “We held a private meeting with a team of delegation from Turkey. They want to invest in Kaduna Textile and turn it around. In summary, they want to start producing military and paramilitary uniforms for members of the Nigerian Armed Forces,” Musa said.

    According to him, the project is a laudable one that will boost the state economy and increase its revenue drive while creating massive employment. “We have been able to attract investors into the state,” he added.

    The NNDC’s Executive Director, Investments, Alhaji Abdullahi Ali-Gombe, said the agreement would revamp the textile firm owned by the 19 northern states.

    Besides boosting the economy, when operational, the firm will go into the production of military and paramilitary garments.

    Ali-Gombe, who is also the Chairman, Restructuring Committee of the KTL, said: “We cannot say tentatively when this will take off. We are hoping very soon.”

    The Kaduna Textile Limited, established in 1957, operated a large integrated textile mill, producing various kinds of garments.

    The company started operation in November 1957, spinning the country’s cotton. In 1961, it began the production of finished garments.

    The firm was financed by the Northern Nigeria Regional Marketing Board and the region’s development corporation and was managed by an expatriate firm, David Whitehead & Sons. It was closed down in 2000 following various financial crises and inadequate power supply.

  • 500 get textile materials in Kebbi

    The District Head of Ambursa in Kebbi, Alhaji Haruna Rasheed, has doled out clothing materials to 500 indigent persons in his domain, ahead of Sallah festival.

    Rasheed who addressed the beneficiaries in Ambursa, said the donation was to bring succour and enable them celebrate the Eid-el-Fitr, coming up in less than two weeks.

    “The donation has been an annual event for the past 15 years; it is aimed at bringing succour to the people to enable them celebrate the Sallah in happiness,” he said.

    The district head appreciated his subjects for their support and loyalty, and advised them to use the remaining period of the Ramadan to pray for peace and unity of the country.

    Rasheed directed village heads in his domain to sensitize the people on the need to conduct themselves peacefully during and after the July 15 local council election in the state.

    “We have been directed by the Gwandu Emirate Council to urge you on the need for peace and unity during the forthcoming council election.

    “ We are also asked to warn politicians against using youth to achieve their selfish interests,” he said.

    The district head advised the electorate to come out enmasse to cast their votes peacefully and cooperate with security agencies during and after the election.

  • Textile workers appeal to govt to reopen moribund factories

    Textile workers appeal to govt to reopen moribund factories

    The Nigeria Union of Textile Garment Workers (NUTGW) has appealed to the Kaduna State Government to ensure the reopening of shut textile industries and payment of workers’ gratuity.

    Its Deputy Secretary-General   Comrade Dele Ojo, urged the government  to reopen the  factories in the interest of the people.

    He said: “People are suffering; those displaced when the factories were closed are still in trouble. Even though we do not have the statistics as to how many have lost their lives, we know the situation is such that everybody is concerned about the welfare of the people that were displaced as a result of the closure.”

    Ojo said the union was always in touch with workers of the closed textile factories with a view to finding solutions to their plight.

    “The union has been doing a lot in terms of advocacy to draw government’s attention to the plight of the industry and our campaign has made it possible for UNTPL to be reopened because of the provisions of the Bank of Industry (BoI) with a current work force of about 1,500,” he said.

    On Kaduna Textiles Limited (KTL), he said: “We were told recently that the management has been able to woo some investors from Turkey, who were interested in making military uniforms. We were told that they have gotten to the stage where investors have shown interest and that they only needed the cooperation of the Ministries of Defence and Interior to give them the go ahead so that they can float a garment factory there.”

    Ojo noted that these were reassuring information, which the union believed would help it get those factories to reopen. He said if this happened, some of the workers would be re-engaged and the issue of payment of their entitlement may also come to bear.

    On FINETEX and NOTEX, Ojo said there was an erroneous belief that their gratuity had not been paid, but because of all the union’s efforts, it was able to convince the chairman of the company, Alhaji Dantata, who made available about N250million for the workers’ gratuity.

    He said this has been paid to the workers. “It is not fair for anyone to claim that NOTEX and FINETEX gratuity had not been paid because it has been addressed,” Ojo clarified.

    On Arewa Textile, he said, “The major problem they have was with Union Bank. We were told that the bank has recovered so much from Arewa Textiles in terms of the debt owed them and we were thinking that the bank would be sympathetic to the workers in carrying out the burden of gratuity for the workers.”

  • How to revive textile industry, by Aremu

    Unless the Federal Government translates its executive orders into action by directing all agencies and parastatals to continue to patronise Nigerian made fabrics, the textiles industry will remain comatose, the Secretary-General, National Union of Textiles and Garment Workers of Nigeria (NUTGWN), Issa Aremu, has said.

    Speaking with The Nation, Aremu said there was the urgent need for government to revive the textile industry because of its potential to generate massive employment opportunities for Nigerians.

    Aremu said the executive order mandating government agencies to spend more of their budgets on locally produced goods was capable of driving the recovery of the nation’s textile and garment industry.

    He, however, said the challenge is to ensure that the agencies implement the executive order by patronising locally produced textiles.

    “The Police and Customs should stop buying officers’ uniforms from Bangladesh and China, when the surviving textile factories can produce at home. This point cannot be overstated,” Aremu said.

    According to the labour leader, Nigeria spends over $4 billion yearly in importing textiles and ready-made clothing when it has the potential to produce for the local market and even export.

    He said with the right policies, the textile industry can meet local demand and also export to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) market of over 175 million people, as well as to the developed world.

    Aremu, therefore, urged the Federal Government to hasten the implementation of increased workers’ wages in the country.

    He also advised President Muhammadu Buhari to expand the composition of the newly established National Industrial Council to include state governments and labour union representatives to obtain more input.

  • Reviving the textile sector

    •Problems beyond funding; govt must address power and other challenges

    At a Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) forum in Abuja, the Bank of Industry’s (BoI) acting Managing Director, Waheed Olagunju, gave what amounted to an update on the status of the funds created by the Federal Government and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to provide a breather to the ailing sector.

    Among the highlights, he disclosed that the bank had approved loans for 70 projects in the CTG value chain totalling N60billion under the initial N100billion textile revival fund instituted by the Federal Government in 2009. This, he explained, is aside the N50billion fund made available by the CBN as part of the latter’s efforts to promote the development of the textile and garment sector, of which the bank had also disbursed N13.37billion to various beneficiaries.

    He also spoke of yet another N50billion special intervention facility to facilitate the takeover of the existing debt as well as provide additional long-term loans and working capital to existing companies in the CTG sector, of which a total of N24.37billion has been disbursed to the various beneficiaries as of September 30. Olagunju also spoke of capacity utilisation of some of the beneficiary companies, which he said had increased from 40 per cent to about 60 per cent; ditto employment, said to have hit 60,000 across the industry.

    We consider it heart-warming that both the Federal Government and the apex bank have remained steady in their resolve to help the sector turn the corner. Considering the vital role of the sector in generating mass employment (it once reportedly provided three million direct jobs from cotton production to the weaving, spinning and printing of textile materials), and to help reduce the huge foreign exchange outlay spent on imported textile materials, the sector obviously deserves all the attention that the Federal Government can give it, particularly at this time.

    Overall, the picture painted by the BoI chief is that progress is being made in very important segments in the value chain. In other words, a lot of grounds have been covered in getting some of the operators to refurbish their obsolete equipment, refinance existing debts to get them back into production. Considering that the sector still has a long way to go to recover its verve, the least we can do is urge the apex bank and the BoI to maintain the course.

    Yet, as important as the measures are, we also recognise that the problems of the industry are multifarious and complex. Today, it’s been more than six years since the Obasanjo administration launched the initiative to revive the sector. Six years on, it is largely correct to state that not much was done to tackle the problems that took the industry down the slope even when officials have been known to talk glibly of the potential 600,000 jobs and annual revenue of $2billion to be generated from a revamped textile sector.

    The result is that these problems have not only persisted, new forms have since manifested creating a climate that can only be described as inhospitable and non-competitive, hence, we continue to talk of the terrible state of the nation’s infrastructure, particularly electricity, and how that impinges on the cost of doing business; the problem of multiple taxation that has remained a thorn in the flesh of all businesses; the smuggling of cheap textile materials – a sure killer for the local textile firms – and no less, the humongous cost of the failure to organise our cotton growers and hence harness the gains of backward integration.

    It is high time the Federal Government confronted these problems headlong. One sure way to do that is to give practical expression to the quest for local content by massively patronising local textile firms until they are able to compete. This seems to us one sure way to boost employment and to reduce the poverty now prevalent, particularly in the North, where textile industry once served as the backbone.

  • Nigerians expend N100b on imported textile annually

    Nigerians expend N100b on imported textile annually

    The country reportedly spends over N100 billion annually on imported clothing materials, Secretary General, National Union of Textile Garment Workers of Nigeria, (NUTGTWN), Issa Aremu, has said.

    He stated this in Abuja during a Reachout Nigeria Public Lecture with the theme: “Leadership: A collective Responsibility” organised by Christ Embassy Abuja.

    According to him, the textile industry must be fully developed and repositioned to create job opportunities for unemployed Nigerians.

    He called on government to resuscitate abandoned textile industries in Nigeria as a means of getting the country out of its present economic challenges.

    Aremu said: “The real security we need is economy security, jobs should be created and the key for sustainable jobs is industrialisation. We have to diversify the economy, bring back labour intensive industry like textile which has enough labour capacity and the key to it is that there must be uninterrupted power supply and we must patronise made in Nigeria products.

    “Once industries are back, Nigeria is not just an investment destination, it is a job destination.

    “This country spends about 100 billion naira annually on clothing materials but they are all imported. You can imagine if we could make half of these locally. Stop the drain of foreign exchange not only that you create jobs for the teeming mass of our people and that is the key out of recession.”

    Also, a former Senator, Olorunnimbe Mamora, blamed the current economic challenges facing the country on the inability of past leaders to use available resources to plan for the future.

    Mamora, who represented Lagos East Constituency in the National Assembly, said past leadership failed to sustain the manufacturing and textile industries when the country discovered oil.

    “It is not as if even in the best of economy they don’t experience recession but the issue is that if we had done the right things, what we needed to do when we really had the oil in terms of the manufacturing industry, the textile industry and all that which we didn’t sustain and don’t forget agriculture used to be our main stay in those years when we had groundnut, palm oil, cocoa, coal, and the timber.

    “These were the good old days when we ought to have achieved so much that we can fall back to this time around but unfortunately as soon as we had oil we abandoned them.

    “These are the things we are talking about when we say leadership was not able to harness and utilise the resources available to us.”

    He said Nigeria must return to agriculture, and manufacturing for it to come out of recession.

    “If you look at the amount we spend on importation on food and other things it is really humongous. We need to stop this because we are crying out and going backwards because we continue to deplete our foreign exchange so the way out is to patronise home made goods and that will stimulate the domestic economy,” he added.

  • BoI approves N50b for cotton, textile garment sectors

    BoI approves N50b for cotton, textile garment sectors

    The Bank of Industry (BoI) has approved loans of over N50billion comprising debt takeover, term loan and working capital to 40 beneficiaries across the entire value chain in line with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) guidelines on the fund.

    A total of N13.37 billion released by CBN has been disbursed to the various beneficiaries as at September 30.

    Its Managing Director, Waheed Olagunju who spoke at a one-day cotton, textile and garment stakeholders forum organised by the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the bank in Abuja, stated that aside from funding, the bank and the ministry are working together to resolve issues such as power, smuggling, counterfeiting and patronage of locally made goods.

    He said: “As part of its efforts to promote the development of the textile and garment sector, the CBN recently put in place a N50billion special intervention facility to facilitate takeover of the existing debt as well as provide additional long term loan and working capital facility to existing companies in the Cotton Textile Garment (CTG) sectors.

    “I hope there will be more focus on preferring solutions to the challenges facing the CTG sector in fostering mutually beneficial relationships, networking and knowledge sharing amongst stakeholders on the current and future trends in the cotton value chain in Nigeria but around the world.”

  • Nigeria spends N1.32tr on imported textile yearly, says DG

    Nigeria spends over $4 billion, about N1.32 trillion, yearly on imported textile and other ready-made clothings despite having what it takes for a thriving textile industry, experts have said.

    The industry, hitherto the second largest employer after the government, has been bogged down by lack of infrastructure and smuggled textile from Asian countries, especially China.

    However, the Director-General, Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA), Mr. Hamma Kwajaffa, said despite the prevailing harsh operating environment, the situation is redeemable.

    He said what is required to turn around the industry is for the government to address the key issues raised by operators in the cotton and textile value chain. This, according to him, is the only way recent initiatives unveiled by government to revive the sector will yield result.

    The NTMA boss told The Nation that the influx of smuggled textile into major markets in Kantin Kwari in Kano and Balogun and Oshodi in Lagos, not only undermines the local industry, but also denies Nigerians the opportunity of getting employed.

    Worse still, he said unbridled importation of fake and substandard textiles into the country deprives the government of revenue, while also draining the country’s precarious foreign exchange reserves.

    As Kwajaffa noted, “other countries are helping their textile industry in many ways due to its high employment potential. Ethiopia has one of the most competitive power tariffs at four US cents/Kwh, which is a fifth of the power cost in Nigeria.

    “Recently, India, which is the second largest textile producer in the world after China, announced a $1 billion incentive package for the textile and apparel industry to create 10 million jobs in three years”.

    Kwajaffa hailed the interest shown by the government in reviving the industry by the on-the-spot assessment of textile mills in Lagos by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, and Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele.

    The NTMA boss, however, said about eight issues were brought to the notice of the government, and that most of the issues for which government intervention was sought are within the ambit of existing policy framework whereas some require new initiatives.

    One of the issues, which he said holds promise of reviving the sector was the re-scheduling of the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) loan facility by the Bank of Industry (BoI) to 10+2 years. He said although, government agreed to this, a notification is still awaited for it to be effective.

    The other issue, according to Kwajaffa, is the price of gas supplied to the local industry, which is pegged to the American dollar and has not been reviewed after the drop in global oil and gas prices.

    “The current domestic tariff at $7.38 per MMSCF is three times the price of gas in the international market,” he pointed out, arguing that “there is the need to review the tariff on gas supplied to the industry in Naira, which should be affordable.”

    Kwajaffa also identified scarcity of black oil, which he said has crippled the operations of the textile mills in the north. He said there is need to ensure availability of the fuel oil to the textile mills by way of direct allocation from Kaduna and other refineries.

    Also, consistent supply of certified seeds, he added, is required to ensure adequate supply of cotton to the local textile industry. Besides, under the dual exchange rate policy being pursued, he said CBN should allocate Foreign Exchange (forex) at official rate for meeting the need for import of essential raw materials by the textile mills.

    He further said there is need for the redemption of the huge backlog of unutilised Negotiable Duty Credit Certificates (NDCC’s) in lieu of BoI loan instalment owed by the textile companies.

    Kwajaffa identified other issues raised that are agitating the minds of operators to include the need to encourage import substitution through local patronage, and check influx of smuggled goods and step up action against counterfeit textiles, which fake the Nigerian trademarks.

    He said these measures to revive the textile industry have become necessary in view of the fact that Nigeria has the potential to produce for the local market and also export to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) market of 175 million people, as well as to the developed world.