Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State on Wednesday called for the revival of the nation’s textile industries to boost job creation and expansion of the economy.

Speaking at the Third Renaissance Capital Pan-African Conference in Lagos, Fashola lamented that the textile sector, which used to be an important component of the economy, was now comatose.

He said the sector was too important to be ignored and called for appropriate government and private interventions to revamp it. “The textile sector of the Nigerian economy used to account for a large number of workers and was successfully run in the past. I know Lagos had at least two of them while Kano had many. Unfortunately, only a very few of them are still around. If we revive these textile industries, it would help a great deal to boost our economy,” he said.

Fashola suggested investment in new technology, nothing that employment of obsolete technology was partially responsible for the near collapse of the sector. The governor also urged investment in training and capacity building of workers, stating that it was central to the successful running of the textile sector.

Speaking on the investment opportunities offered by the state, Fashola said the government had opened opportunities for investors in critical sectors under its private-public partnership development model. He said the state had put in place an enabling environment to guarantee investments in housing, energy, health, aviation, transportation and others sectors.

Earlier, Mrs Yvonne Ike, Chief Executive Officer, Renaissance Capital, West Africa, noted that Nigeria, as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, had many investment opportunities. She called on investors to key into some of the opportunities and invest in the critical sectors of the nation’s economy.