The Nigerian presidency has constituted a special committee to resuscitate the country’s ailing cotton and textile industry, according to newspaper reports in the country.
The direction is in line with the campaign promises of President Muhammadu Buhari to revive cotton and textile industry.
Permanent secretary of the agriculture and rural development ministry, Sonny Echono, who announced this while inaugurating the committee in Abuja, lamented that cotton, textile and garments industries across the country have become “shadows of themselves” due to influx of cheap textile materials, inconsistent government policies and dumping of sub-standard textile materials in the country.
He said that the textile and garments industry in Nigeria which once had over 400,000 employees now employs only about 30,000 people due to the deplorable state of the industry.
“The UNTH in Kaduna, textile industries in Aba and Kano, these industries alone employed over 400,000 Nigerians but today, if you go there, they are ghosts of themselves. Only about 30,000 workers are working in all these textile industries.
“Worried and concerned on the need to create jobs and add value, because we are spending so much money in importing garments, the President gave this charge to set up this committee,” he said.
But he was optimistic that the Nigerian textile industry has the potential to compete with the best in the world. He said the government was irrevocably committed to ensuring substantial growth in high quality cotton production to feed textile and garment industry, and bring back a thriving textile and garments industry.
