By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian textile industry is one of the industries which the country has great potential to exploit in order to boost and diversify the nation’s economy.
It is as such that the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, last Thursday, made it known during a meeting with the service chiefs and chief executives of uniformed services in Nigeria towards reviving the textile industry.
Acclaiming it as critical, the Governor remarked that it is the Buhari-administration’s intention to provide employment for Nigeria’s teeming population, with special emphasis on agricultural revolution.
Through the enforcement of the Executive Order 003 in support of local content in procurement by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), the CBN Chief said this will help in addressing the pressure on Nigeria’s foreign reserves through demands for forex for the importation of textile and clothing materials.
He said at the meeting that with the involvement of the Cotton, Textile, and Garment (CTG) sector’s input, it will aid in the diversification and job creation as the sector has the capacity to create over two million jobs and transform the country’s rural economy.
Across the federal, state, and local levels, Mr Emefiele noted that the CTG sector will improve internal revenues, reduce import bill incurred annually on textile and apparel by $4 billion, and make Nigeria a global player in the industry.
He also said they were working towards a zero-importation plan ahead of 2020, pointing out that this cannot be achieved without understanding the factors that militate against the sector’s contribution to growth and development.
Noting that certain systematic challenges hold back the sector from contributing to the nation’s GDP, the nation’s chief banker said there were plans in place towards making the sector standard again like it was in the 1970’s and early 80’s when the nation was the top textile industry in Africa.
Mr Emefiele emphasised that the first step to achieving this goal has already been put in place, saying, “We flagged-off the 2019 Wet Season Cotton Input Distribution to 150,000 farmers in Katsina, Katsina State on May 6th, 2019 under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme.”
With production ongoing across 23 States of Nigeria with more to come onboard in the next planting season, he added that, “We have also put in place necessary mechanisms to ensure use of high yielding varieties that will produce top quality fabrics and those that can compete in the international market.”
Calling for the co-operation of all stakeholders to contribute to the realization of the set national targets, the central bank Governor said that the mandate of President Muhammadu Buhari is to ensure that all uniformed services and theatre wears in hospitals and medical facilities be sourced locally from the Nigerian CTG sector.
Already the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) has been notified to enforce compliance among MDAs, he told the military top brass at the gathering.