Speaking, President of NLC Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, commended the textile union for its consistent struggle for the revival of textile industry, saying their efforts had yielded fruits with the reopening of United Nigeria Textile Plc, Kaduna and the relative stability in the sector.

Comrade Omar argued that to deal with the twin problem of unemployment and poverty, Nigeria must return to manufacturing and said NLC would continue to partner with the textile union and other unions in the private sector to strengthen the campaign and advocacy for favourable industrial policy.

Comrade Omar noted that the road to sustainable job creation, end to poverty and insecurity lies in employment generation through value adding processes in agriculture and the extractive industries.

On his part, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu stressed the need for the workers in the country to be more productive to guarantee the nation’s aspiration of joining the league of 20 most vibrant economies in the world.

According to Wogu, no nation can make progress with low productivity index. He said; “Government as an employer of Labour will soon make a commensurate productivity demand on Labour, because our current level of productivity cannot sustain our aspiration of joining the league of 20 largest world economies.”

The Minister, who reiterated Government concern about the nation’s productivity index and industrial productivity capacities, however said it is aiming at reviving the textile sector through various direct and indirect intervention initiatives.