The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Thursday set up a committee for the revival of the country’s cotton, textile and garment industry, with the mandate to revive and set up a minimum of 50 textile firms by 2023.

Speaking during the inauguration of the committee in Abuja, Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, lamented that the country loses $2 billion annually to textile smuggling and export, noting that it was time the country revived the industry to benefit from the huge opportunities in the industry.

He said the committee would be saddled with the responsibility of resuscitating the country’s cotton belt, identify textile clusters, improve cotton production nationwide and boost power supply to textile firms across the clusters.

The committee would also be responsible for retooling and re-fitting of plants and machineries of the textile industry; identifying infrastructure deficit, especially power supply infrastructure, to the textile clusters; ensure captive power generation is financed and addressed for the textile clusters; and encourage independent, private off-grid power to ensure 24 hours, seven days a week operations in the clusters.

The committee would also strengthen the Nigerian Customs Service to curb smuggling of textile goods; ensure general reduction of cost of doing business by eliminating multiple taxation; as well as ensure zero per cent duty for machineries needed by the textile industry.

In the interim, the committee is required to revive 20 textile firms, while 50 firn

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