STATE OF TEXTILE COYS IN NIGERIA: KADUNA IN FOCUS

Today, Nigeria’s once bubbly textile industry has regrettably become a national parody. The industry that started in 1956 with the establishment of Kaduna Textile Mill Limited and developed clusters mainly in Kano, Lagos and Ibadan is dysfunctional, exporting more than two million jobs to China while engaging only about thirty thousand Nigerians.

A visit around Kaduna which played host to about seven notable textile companies, will reveal the dilapidated structures with their roofs removed, desolate premises with cannibalized machines and machineries making the premises of almost the entire Textile companies look like abandoned graveyards.

What is responsible for the dilapidated state of the textile companies that boasted of providing employment opportunities to more than 50% of the youths in Kaduna state? Many have put the blame on the political class, especially the 19 northern states who are said to own a larger percentage of the shares of these textile companies.

The governors of the 19 Northern states have at various times, deliberated on the revamping of the moribund textile industries but these deliberations have only ended as lip-service as nothing has been done towards the revamping of these sector that can contribute to the growth of their economies; wealth and employment for their populace.

In 2015, the Kaduna state Governor, Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai had disclosed of plans by his administration to provide the necessary funding for the take off of the Kaduna Textile Limited but what has happened till date, remains a sad tale.

It is a sad commentary that Nigeria that had more than 200 functional factories in the 1980s producing most of the fabrics for the local and international markets sank into comatose only three decades after. Before its ignominious decent into insignificance, the industry once created 500,000 direct jobs in the 1980s and about 2 million indirectly. It also generated $2 billion annually for Nigeria as revenue until the 1980s. The textile sub-sector of the manufacturing sector which had factories all over the country busy producing for the ever-increasing domestic demand few decades ago was the next highest employer of labour after government.

The industry’s growth indices were also high. Between 1985 and 1991, for example, the industry grew by an average of 65 per cent annually. The textile subsector was responsible for 25 per cent of the entire manufacturing sector, and formed a significant part of the nation’s pride.

Oddly enough, all of these have suddenly become history as the industry is hobbled by a cacophony of factors, constricting most of the companies and leading to shutting down of their factories due to frustration, weak protection, mismanagement, smuggling, little or no access to fund, power instability and high cost of input including high cost of raw materials and non-availability of LPFO from the nation’s refineries.

Unfortunately, the once burgeoning industry has slipped into a lull in response to Government’s subscription to the dictates of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) liberalization policy in 1997; an action which experts blame for the industry’s maladies. Massive importation became the new norm as a result of the signing of the Treaty, laying factories under necessity to shut down because of escalating costs and wrenching competition. The already bad situation was worsened by smuggling which took a different turn and the emergence of the counterfeit cartel, which was a new twist in early 2000.

It is appalling that the country failed to arrest the situation while the members of the cartel perfected their obnoxious practices; picking samples from Nigeria to reproduce same with low quality fabrics overseas, only to re-import them and sell at lower rates in the domestic market.

Expectedly, the multi-billion naira counterfeit industry has been entrenched in the country and, is intensely difficult to destroy however much the authorities have tried.

Given this development, there is need to urge Government to strategically rebalance its interests between the policy of jobs creation and income generation. Each of this is crucial in the effort at taking the nation’s economy out of recession. The country’s economy and the unemployment situation are in the pitiable state they have been placed today as a result of a gradual but continuous neglect of the textile and agriculture sectors in favour of crude oil.

It is common knowledge that Governments have made funds available at various dispensations. Unfortunately these initiatives have made no significant impact on the entire industry.

Former President Obasanjo’s administration, for instance, created a special fund in billions of naira for the industry. The late President Yar’adua’s administration also did. However, the impact leaves more to be desired. The Bank of Industry (BOI) introduced an Intervention fund for the same industry under former President Goodluck Jonathan. In all of this, the impact has remained dismal as Nigeria still imports 80 per cent of her textile requirement.

There is still hope. Though a research in 2013 showed that Nigeria could only supply 17 per cent of her local demand for textile with the rest filled through smuggling from neighbouring countries, China and Europe, there is still lush opportunity for the country.  Nigeria is believed to require about N300 billion worth of textile consumption per annum but is said to produce only a paltry N40 million worth of the product. Smuggling of textile into the Nigerian market is about N2.2 billion annually. This explains our position that all necessary steps now need to be taken forthwith to reposition and enhance productivity and competitiveness in the textile industry.

The best time to start is now.

Culled from Independent