By Victor Ahiuma-Young

FEW days ago, Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar, Senior officials of the  Ministry, Director General, Nigeria Textile Manufacturers Association, Managing Director, BOI and other stakeholders, were guests of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, at the Union’s national secretariat, Kaduna.

Among others, the meeting centered around revival of the manufacturing sector in the country, particularly the textile sub sector.

some of the made in Nigeria goods

In a presentation at the meeting, General Secretary of the Union and Vice President, IndustriALL Global Union, Comrade Issa Aremu, lamented that despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive, Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, have refused to patronise locally made goods, in this case, fabrics.

Aremu is of the opinion that had the MDAs been patronizing  made-in Nigeria products as directed by President Buhari, it would have gone a long way in boosting local production.

He contended that there would not be development without industry, saying: “The point cannot be overstated.  There cannot be development without industry.  Only industry can provide sustainable jobs and living wages and necessary revenues for government to provide the needed infrastructure for development.  For a diverse country like Nigeria, Industry is also a unifier. There was once a Nigeria in which we have textile industry in all the geo-political zones of the country.  This is why our union is a Pan-Nigerian.

“For Africa to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 2030, especially SDG 9 dealing with industry and innovation, African continent must innovate and industrialize.  Africa must copy China’s industrialization drive which has within 20 years moved over 500 million people out of poverty through sustainable employment and wage-led manufacturing and industrialization. Africa must make what it consumes, otherwise it will be consumed by the rest of the world.”

Challenges

While commending the executive orders issued by the Federal Executive in line with the promise of President Buhari on the ease of doing business, saying “Of special importance to textile industry is the order mandating Government agencies to spend more of their budgets on locally produced goods. This singular order would help in the recovery of the textile and garment industry if complied with.  “We acknowledge and commend the Federal Government of Nigeria for launching the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP.

However, it is surprising the National Cotton, Textile & Garment, CTG, policy was not built into the ERGP. The government should ensure the implementation of  CTG policy as adopted by the Federal Government since 2014. The major highlight in that policy is that we must ensure that there is uninterrupted electricity supply to textile industry, as well as other manufacturing industries.

“Inspite of the efforts by the Federal government, the textile industry is yet to revive. Only recently, the industry recorded about 700 direct job losses due to retrenchment in some of the remaining factories.  There is high influx of counterfeit and smuggled goods due to weak enforcement of import prohibition policy. The Federal government should do what is being done on rice importation to textile.  We need a Special Task Force against smuggling just as on Rice.”

Low patronage

According to NUTGTWN’s scribe,

“There is low patronage inspite of the Executive Orders issued by the Federal Executive. The challenge is for the Federal Government to ensure that its Ministries, Departments and Agencies make the executive orders a reality in patronizing locally produced textiles. The police and Customs department should stop buying officers uniforms from Bangladesh and China, when the surviving textile factories can produce at home.

There should also be sustainable industrial policy in place for the country. All the things that led to the death of our industries can be traced to inconsistent industrial policy. There should be a sustainable industrial policy emphasising the need to add value to cotton rather than importing finished goods or textiles from abroad

“As much as possible, we must ensure availability of raw material. It is an irony that Nigeria today is facing the problem of cotton. There should be abundant production of cotton locally. We have to give incentives to local farmers or cotton growers to see the need to produce raw materials, as well as food crops.”