Mr. Felix Egbamuno is the Chairman of Femro 3, a textile manufacturing company based in Lagos. The company is one of the beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s N100 billion Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) Revival Fund being managed by the Bank of Industry (BoI).

In this interview, Egbamuno praised government’s policy intervention for the sector, saying that  his company, with staff strength of over 250, would have liquidated if not for the  CTG Fund.

We heard that you are a journalist turned manufacturer, how did it happen?

I started my career in television in 1977 as a Tv cameraman and I worked for NTA News and in 1980, I came out of NTA with Mike Enahoro, Bimbo Oloyede , Yomi Folarin and we started a nationwide Tv programme. I started with Nationwide Tv as Chief cameraman and  soon I rose to the rank of managing director. I won the NNPC account. I managed information dissemination via electronic medium for the NNPC for  two and half years and for ten years I was producing the NNPC sponsored programme ‘Petroleum Perspective’ which I ran on 21 TV stations weekly, for ten years.

So, journalism  was  my field; there is no local government area in this country I have not been to and I have been to 74 countries.

Managing the NNPC account was very challenging, especially the security challenges; as I had to get very elaborate security clearance to do my job. But it was all the grace of God. During the military regime, each time there was a coup, the old regime handed me over to the new regime because I had in- depth knowledge of the industry. While I was doing this, I knew that all things that had a beginning had an end and I knew that there was a need for me to prepare for my exit from the oil sector.

So I started a Garment Company called Femro 3 Nigeria Limited. We started operation in 1985 .The company knits and processes its own fabric which meets international standard. The garment division produces high quality T-shirts, caps, vendors’ jackets as well as many other corporate gift items. Even though my wife is a lawyer, I asked her to run that business and  started investing in textiles and we won the Guinness Account and we have maintained the account till- date.

Because we won the Guinness account, we were not allowed to work for Nigerian breweries. Then in 1990 we won the account of Coca Cola. Coca Cola is a world wide multi-national. For having the account of Coca Cola we were not allowed to work for 7up plc. We also had the account of Cadbury and Unilever.       In the communication sector we had accounts in Globacom, Airtel and MTN.

What were the challenges you faced running the business?

By 2009, the textile industry had almost virtually collapsed. A sector that once employed over 240,000 Nigerian could only boast of about 12,000. We were one of the few that were still alive and we were alive because we were working for multi-nationals. It was not possible for us to sell our T-shirt in the Nigerian market even though our quality met international standards.

This was because the market was saturated with T-shirts from China, Bangladesh, and also India, and they were even inferior T-shirts. Some of them were like disposables, and Nigerians were buying them. So we started buying fabrics from Indian countries but the quality of the fabric was such that those firms we were working for were not satisfied with the fabrics and I knew that since I had an account with such companies as Guinness and Coca Cola, I must produce a better quality T-shirts better than the Indian company.

So I got a Swiss company to do a system design for me and also act as vendor and the company came up with a cost that was very high because of the quality of the machines used, and it was manufactured to European standards. Because Coca Cola was American, we bought dyeing machine from Chicago and at the end, our quality was so good to the extent that sometimes the Customs often arrest our truck thinking it was  carrying contraband. There was a time we produce sportswear for children and some women from Cotonou liked it and gave us a French label for their order.

Amidst these challeges, did you seek help from banks?

Yes. In 2009, I borrowed two million dollars from a Nigerian bank with an interest rate of 27.5 percnt for a period of 18 months. After the 18 months, they rolled it over and in the process charged processing and management fees again for a new loan but we could not pay it as our condition was not getting better.  I was in trouble because the commercial bank was already threatening me.

In this confusion, we approached the Bank of Industry.   So with the help of BoI, I was able to pay up the commercial bank. After a while, BoI then gave us fund to increase our production capacity from 30 tons per month to 60tons per month. Apart from paying the commercial bank 27.5 percent interest officially, we still parted with some money in form of bribe but when I obtained funds from BoI, I didn’t bribe anybody.

So far, how is the CTG money impacting on your operation?

The policy is a very good policy, and it has worked very well in the textile industry.

I am very thankful to the federal government of Nigeria for the Cotton, Textile and Garment fund and I am also thankful to the BoI for managing the funds efficiently.

If the Cotton Textile and Garment fund was not created and BOI had not given me money to pay up the commercial bank I could have been dead now.

However, I appeal to the federal government that what was done to the Rice fund should also be done to the Cotton, Textile and Garment Fund whereby manufacturers are given 5 years moratorium.