allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Reviving the Textile Industry (Page 1 of 2)

The spacious entrance area of the Kaduna Trade Fair Complex was crowded as traders displayed their wares to attract buyers. Assorted imported fabrics, mainly guinea brocade known as shadda and other plain fabrics for men, wrist watches, pen, shoes, etc, were among the items on display.

I remarked to a friend, Hauwa, as we were about to enter the hall that the traders were part of the problem we were about to discuss. I then looked at the fabric most of us were wearing and since they were not locally made, I told her that perhaps we were also part of the problem and she laughed!!

Last Saturday, the Kaduna-based Arewa Media Forum organised a seminar on an issue that has generated so much concern, but which the government, captains of industry and the labour unions have not been able to address effectively. The collapse of the textile industry in the Northern States and the effects of this on the economy of the region. The Arewa Media Forum AMF is a Non Governmental Organisation established by journalists, newspaper proprietors and stakeholders in journalism practice in Northern Nigeria. The NGO has been in policy fora and organising interviews with policy makers on various topics to enlighten the public.

Chairman of AMF, Malam Mohammed Haruna, and Managing Director of Kaduna-based Citizen Communications, welcomed participants to the event. He informed the audience that the choice of the topic, and the decision to organise the seminar was taken last year at one of our meetings where the forum discussed the neglect of agriculture, the poor industrial base, the closure of factories and the low capacity utilisation of existing ones in the northern states. In 1949, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria had a vision for the industrialization of the region. He established the Kano Textile factory in Gwammaja, Kano and the Kaduna Textile Mill KTL to use the abundant cotton produced by farmers in the region. Kano became a textile marketing city and Kaduna also developed into a textile city as other factories and support services, such as the spinning and weaving industries blossomed. Marketers of Kaduna-made textile materials; mainly African prints atampa also carved a niche for themselves selling these products locally and exporting to neigbouring countries. Sadly in the past decade, we watched with concern as one textile factory after the other closed shop. The last factory that closed last year was the United Nigeria Textile UNTL which used to produce fine wax that was a good match for any imported brand. The closure of textile factories was not limited to Kaduna, but was repeated in Funtua, the headquarters of the cotton production belt, Kano the commercial centre of Northern States and Lagos the nation's business capital.

What were the causes of this closure? This was properly articulated by all the resource persons at the seminar. Senator Walid Jibrin, the Vice President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN, in his paper titled "Reviving the Textile Industry in Nigeria" gave a historical overview of the development of the sector, its contributions to the economic development of the country, the problems being encountered and the way forward. Senator Walid identified the following as some of the factors responsible for the collapse of the textile industry. Inconsistency in government policies, lack of protection of nascent home industry due to globalisation and liberalisation policies, high interest rate, smuggling and dumping of cheap Chinese wax and African prints, power crisis and high cost of fuel which have led to sharp rise in cost of manufacturing.

He listed some of the contributions of the textile industry to the economy. They include being the second largest employer of labour after the government, about 2 billion naira derived by government as taxes and levies, providing source of livelihood to over 1,750,000 cotton growersetc.

In his presentation, Alhaji Saidu Dattijo Adahama, the Chairman of Adahama Textile and Garment Industry in Kano, underscored the need to revive the textile industry which has huge potentials. Given Nigeria's huge population, there are basic requirements of citizens for fabric which must be met. Some of these are provision of uniforms for pupils and students of various institutions from nursery, primary to secondary level, uniforms for professionals such as the military, paramilitary organisations, medical workers, industrial garments, corporate wear, under wear, t-shirts, baby dresses, beddings, sports wear, etc Alhaji Saidu, however, observed that neglect of the textile sector has rendered it vulnerable to smuggling. He made an interesting analysis which showed that Nigerian industrialists have not made investments that will ensure that local industry produce enough fabrics to meet the needs of our growing population. In such a situation, smuggling is used to fill the gap between demand and supply.

His research showed that even if all the textile factories in the country were working at full capacity, they would not be able to meet the needs of the citizens. Using Kano as an example, he calculated the fabric requirement as follows:

Kano has a population of 10 million and assuming that every member of a household will require three sets of clothing in a year and each set is 10 metres, the average annual requirement will be 30 metres per person. Thirty metres for 10 million people comes to 300 million metres. With a population of 140 million, Nigeria will need 4.4 billion metres of fabric. This makes smuggling attractive and profitable because the unmet need exists. He recommended that government private sector partnership should support the establishment of mega textile industries in Gombe and Funtua, the major cotton growing zones of the country. He also recommended that micro finance banks should also be established in major textiles markets nation wide. Garment production industries should be established alongside tailoring institutes in each of the nineteen northern states. The 24 commercial banks should also replicate the United States NEXIM banks in reviving collapsed economic sectors in Nigeria. Many of those who contributed to the discussions blamed the oil boom for the neglect of the agricultural and industrial sector and the country's over reliance on crude oil as the major source of revenue.

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