The Nigerian textile industry has continued to struggle with available data showing that the sector's contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in steady decline over the past 5 years.
But while data shows decline in the domestic front, the export value is showing consistent increases, though largely due to currency depreciation. The data also shows sustained rise in importation.
Grouped along with footwear, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that the sector contracted by 8.1 percent to N1.224 trillion in 2024 from N1.332 trillion in 2020.
A breakdown of the data for the five year period shows a consistent downward trend.
From the 2020 figure, the sector recorded a GDP decline of 1.27 percent to N1.315 trillion in 2021, and further down by 2.23 percent to N1.286 trillion in 2022.
The decline rate accelerated to 3.06 percent in 2023 when it recorded N1.247 trillion and in 2024 it went down by 1.8 percent to N1.224 trillion.
The data further shows the sector's declining percentage share of total GDP which stood at 1.9 percent in 2020, 1.82 percent in 2021, 1.72 percent in 2022, 1.72 percent in 2023, and 1.63 percent in 2024.
Stakeholders have identified uncontrolled importation through smuggling, counterfeiting and infrastructural decay as some of the major reasons for the sector's struggles.
For instance, amidst the local industry's struggles, over the five year figure under review, the value of imported textile and textile articles rose by 298 percent to N726.18 billion in 2024 from N182.53 billion in 2020.
The spate of importation surged 52.7 percent to N278.77 billion in 2021 from 2020, rose by 31.1 percent to N365.46 billion in 2022, and in 2023, textile imports increased by 3.2 percent to N377.08 billion.
However, in 2024, the importation of textiles and textile articles skyrocketed by 92.6 percent to N726.18 billion, which can be mostly attributed to the effect of the devaluation of the Naira.
But industry observers said the import figures are for officially imported and recorded transactions, indicating that actual figures are likely to by three times higher as most of the importations happen informally through large scale smuggling.
However, the sector also witnessed a surge in export value over the period under review.
Data shows that the country's textile and textile article exports increased by 514 percent to N36.981 billion in 2024 from N6.022 billion in 2020 also due to depreciation of the Naira.
A breakdown of the data shows that in 2020, the sector exported N6.022 billion worth of textile articles, N12.292 billion in 2021, N10.267 billion in 2022, N18.755 billion in 2023, and N36.981 billion in 2024.
Textile mills down to 20 from 180
Commenting, President of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Godonu Peters, lamented the comatose state of the once vibrant textile industry in Nigeria.
His words: "There was once a vibrant textile industry in Nigeria. The industry, with its umbilical linkage to the cotton sector and share in non-oil exports is of vital importance to the economy.
"In the 1970's and 1980's, Nigeria was home to Africa's largest textile industry, with over 180 textile mills in operation.
"The industry employed some direct 650,000 workforce and indirect millions of cotton farmers, traders and garment workers and tailors throughout the country.
"Regrettably, most of the factories have stopped operations due to lack of an enabling environment and inconsistency in government policy.
"Over the years, the number of textile mills has reduced from over 180 to about 20, many of which are in a perilous state.
"The combined workforce in Nigeria's textile industry stands at less than 20,000 workers. The worst hit are the clothing and apparel industries."
Smuggling, counterfeiting major problems
Peters further stated: "Unrestrained smuggling/importation and counterfeiting of Made-in-Nigeria textiles is a major problem facing the Nigerian textile sector. As Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, recently said, the real problem in the textile industry is not lack of cheaper power or even working capital. If you give the industries cheaper power but allow the smuggling to continue the industries will not still survive.
"The truth is that foreign companies are using Nigeria as a dumping ground. Today, over 90 per cent of textile products in Nigerian markets are either smuggled or imported into the country."
Public policies have largely failed - NUTGTWN
However, the General Secretary of NUTGTWN, Ali Baba, charged the government on effective implementation of intervention programmes aimed at reviving the textile industry.
He stated: "Successive governments in Nigeria since 1999 following the efforts of the union and industry stakeholders have introduced various measures and intervention programmes aimed at reviving the textile industry.
"But there is a huge gap between policy pronouncements and actual implementation. The said measures have not yielded the required boost in the sector as the real problems undermining the progress and growth of the sector have not been properly addressed.
"We are excited with the enthusiasm of the current administration to revive the textile industry. Recently, the new Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Senator John Enoh, reiterated the government's commitment to reviving the textile sector, enhancing its value chain, and promoting made-in-Nigeria goods to reduce import dependency.
"Government needs to urgently convene an all inclusive stakeholders' summit on the revival of the textile industry. The summit will discuss and review the current state of the industry, identify the key challenges and come up with practical suggestions and ideas that will support the growth and development of the industry."
According to Baba, "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 and other raw materials rather than importing finished goods or textiles from abroad.
"However, Nigeria is not short of good industrial policies and initiatives for sustainable industrial development. What is lacking is the political will to ensure effective implementation of the policies and measures.
"Conscious effort must be made to curb smuggling and unrestrained import of textile products. Importation is presently discouraging local production and putting a strain on foreign reserves as well as weakening the economy.
"Worldwide, government's patronage is a critical success factor for industrial growth and development. The current administration must ensure enforcement of Executive Order 003, making it mandatory for government's Ministries, Departments and Agencies as well as Uniformed services to use their budgets to patronize Made-in-Nigeria textile thereby reviving the local industries, create mass decent jobs and get our youths gainfully employed.
"Given the specific challenges faced by the industries, it is vital for the government to encourage domestic production and industrialization through its procurement policies. We must enforce the existing local patronage policies and laws including the Executive Order 003.
"Implementation of stricter border controls and enhancing enforcement of anti-smuggling laws are also critical to protect local industries from unfair competition. The Nigeria Customs Service must be on duty to effectively combat smuggling and dumping of sub-standard goods from China, India and other Asian countries into Nigeria which has crippled local industries."
Energy infrastructure, major challenge - Employers
In his own remarks, Director General of Textile and Garment Employers Federation, Mr Kwajjafa Hamma, said: "I will consider energy infrastructure as the main challenge. You see, we use heavy-duty machinery and such machinery consumes huge amounts of electricity.
"You can imagine today Nigeria's population is more than 200 million and we manage only 4000 megawatts of electricity. Industrialised countries like South Africa use up to 50,000megawatts of electricity and charge 4 cents per kilowatts hour while Nigeria charges over 20 cents per kilowatts hour and hence constitutes the biggest challenge on competitiveness.
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"This means we cannot export and make meaningful profits even within Africa. This means that even domestically, our cost of production goes high.That means those countries whose cost is lower could bring their products on our shores and sell cheaper, thereby driving our products out of the market. With the cost of power at lower rates, their countries incentivize them on the products they export. They don't increase power tariff arbitrarily on manufacturing since they have what's called textile hubs, which have a separate tariff."
Need for enforcement of Executive Order 003 - MAN
As a way out, Director General of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Segun Ajayi-Kadir, also called for strict enforcement of Executive Order 003.
He said: "Importation is presently discouraging local production and putting a strain on foreign reserves as well as weakening the economy.
"Structural constraints should be addressed to reduce cost of local production, which remains significantly high.
"Whilst the structural challenges may require a long-term approach to resolve, the government could focus on the low-hanging fruits.
"It could deliberately facilitate backward integration and ensure a friendlier operating environment that will encourage expansion and inflow of fresh investments.
"There is a need to implement the new cluster industrial framework that allows manufacturers to produce efficiently for domestic consumption and export.
"The advocacy of MAN in 2016 to promote the consumption of locally made products yielded desired results as the Federal Government also formally launched the "Buy Naija Campaign", signed Executive Orders 003 and 005 that seek to promote improved patronage and local content.
"However, there appears not to be a well-structured platform for monitoring, evaluation, control and objective interrogation of the effectiveness of these orders."
