Federal Government on Monday decried the huge number of job losses in the textile industry, saying the number of workers employed in the sub-sector had fallen from 800,000 a few years ago to just 24,000.

The Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom, disclosed this in Abuja at a stakeholders’ retreat for the textile sub-sector.

The retreat provided the platform for stakeholders to brainstorm and develop policies towards repositioning the sub-sector.

The retreat, with the theme, ‘Economic growth, wealth and job creation for Nigeria,’ was attended by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, representatives of the ministers of Power, Mines and Steel, Agriculture, and Science and Technology, among others.

Painting a gloomy picture of the sector, Ortom said the Nigerian textile and garment industry, which had a fixed investment of $4bn (N640bn), used to be the second only after South Africa in sub-Saharan Africa.

He said, “Nigeria once had a very vibrant textile and garment sub-sector with fixed investment of $4bn second only to South Africa in sub-Saharan Africa, and was third largest in Africa.

“It also had 63 per cent capacity of textile manufacturing in West Africa and controlled 60 per cent of the textile market in Nigeria. Within the same period, the sub-sector had 175 fully functional mills that employed over 800,000 people.

“Today, the reality has changed and the picture is no longer the same. Employment is at an all-time low level with 24,000 employees working in 25 functional mills that are characterised by low capacity utilisation as at 2008.

“This is further compounded by low export and high influx of cheap products.”

This scenario, the minister added, did not represent the global recognition of the textile sub-sector as a significant catalyst for economic growth.

Ortom said the Federal Government’s aspiration for the sector was to revive its job creation potential, thus contributing significantly to economic development.

He said, “Our aspiration for the sub-sector is to increase its share of the domestic market from the present position of 12 per cent to 25 per cent by 2020.

“This increase is expected to create over 60,000 additional direct jobs and put food on the table for thousands of other Nigerians within the period.”

In order to achieve this, Aganga, who chaired the event, said the strategy for the sector would be to revive its entire value chain.

This, he said, would be carried out in areas where the country had both competitive and comparative advantage.

For instance, he said the production of cotton for domestic utilisation and exports would be strengthened, adding that existing players in the sub-sector would be supported to expand their current operations.

This, according to him, will help to attract strong brands as well as enable operators to set up local manufacturing plants in the country.

Aganga blamed the deterioration in the sub-sector on weak linkages in the value chain, adding that the Industrial Revolution Plan for the textile sector would help address all the weak linkages.

He gave an example of how the IRP had helped to revive the cement sector, which he said, had helped the country to not only save foreign exchange of about N210bn per annum, but also helped in creating about two million direct and indirect jobs.

He said, “For this sector, we are looking at all the value chains and the idea is to remove the obstacles and barriers to increased productivity.

“When you go through where we started from and where we are today, we should all be ashamed of ourselves. This is the time for us to think out of the box and start taking actions that will make this sector number one in Africa and number 10 globally.”

But the General Secretary, National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, Mr. Isa Aremu, said in order to reposition the sector, the issue of funding needed to be given priority.

For instance, he said the current N100bn textile intervention fund should be increased to about N500bn and made available to the operators in the sector at zero per cent interest rate, which should be repaid within 20 years.

The intervention fund is currently being disbursed by the Bank of Industry. It has a repayment period of seven years with interest rate of about six per cent.

Aremu said, “There is a need for affordable financing for the sector. For instance, the BoI intervention fund of N100bn though commendable, needs to be increased to maybe about N500bn.

“The tenor of the fund should also be elongated to about 20 years and the fund should be given to us at an interest rate of zero per cent.”

http://www.punchng.com/business/business-economy/776000-jobs-lost-in-textile-industry-fg/

what Nigerians want to hear is what is been done to revamp this sector not statistics.

After the biafran war, everything has gone downhill in nigeria. The people that single handedly ruined this country are not even ashamed.

The question what is d govt doing about it? not just d usual rhetorics

na waaoo

Am dancing Alingo...thank God am a selfmade millionaire.

Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise; where every Aki and Pawpaw is an importer of low standard clothes,etc.

We need to embrace our culture and clothing more. We also need creative fashion designers to set the trend for new designs.

FIND IT OO

How do they expect the sector to grow when the intervention fund has a seven years repayment period and six percent interest rate. God save us from clueless leaders

no doubt we have huge archive of things to be done in this country. but at least the govt. should save us all this statistics and take due actions where need for once

And dey are spending billion of naira for the eagle!! #no offence, just comment#

Time to run away be that. More criminals on the streets.

Friedrich080: Am dancing Alingo...thank God am a selfmade millionaire.

It's obvious you are not worth more than 10,000 naira. Millionaires like us don't make noise about it.

liberty300: After the biafran war, everything has gone downhill in nigeria. The people that single handedly ruined this country are not even ashamed.

Abeg which people?

Olodostein: Of course, this shouldn't come as a surprise; where every Aki and Pawpaw is an importer of low standard clothes,etc.

We need to embrace our culture and clothing more. We also need creative fashion designers to set the trend for new designs.

Good sentiment but the business world is cold. Can we compete with the Asians in the world market? If we manufacture for Nigerian market, we should be looking at exporting too.

Years of bad decision in our manufacturing can't be undone so quickly. Can we get back even half of the jobs lost in 5 yrs? No

@ FG......... We know, but what are you doing about it?


a) Jonathan is on top of it

b) You will set up a committee

C) you will set up a high-powered committee

d)You will get to the root of the matter

e) all of the above?

There is already a bail out plan for the textile industry by the government, after a recent interactive sessions with stake holders, it was discovered that the initial N180 billion bail out fund from the present government won't be adequate considering the long years of neglect in the sector.

It is good to know that somebody is making serious efforts rather than the usual rhetoric to revamping the textile industries.

occam:

Good sentiment but the business world is cold. Can we compete with the Asians in the world market? If we manufacture for Nigerian market, we should be looking at exporting too.

Years of bad decision in our manufacturing can't be undone so quickly. Can we get back even half of the jobs lost in 5 yrs? No

leave dese ppl. Tell me d principle of d occam's razor.

Maxymilliano: There is already a bail out plan for the textile industry by the government, after a recent interactive sessions with stake holders, it was discovered that the initial N180 billion bail out fund from the present government won't be adequate considering the long years of neglect in the sector.

It is good to know that somebody is making serious efforts rather than the usual rhetoric to revamping the textile industries.

Without power this revamping will just be money down the drain. Lack of power and over dependence on generator drove cost up significantly, so the sector became noncompetitive.

Fix the power sector first. period

The so called job losses in the textile mills are not so bad when you realize why.

The power sector is one of the problems. The second may be the poor state of roads. A third may be cotton.

The biggest problem really is China. The ultra competitive Chinese not only brought the textile sector here to its knees but also adversely affected those in other countries.

We do not have any comparative advantage in producing textiles.

It will therefore be wise if we fully open the borders and slash import duties to as low as 5%.

We may have lost jobs in the textile industry but many tailors are not complaining. It is estimated that up to 1million jobs depend on imported textiles.

The cement stats to me are also wrong. Imported cement which is much cheaper would have created far more jobs on the ground than producing it expensively locally. High cost of bricks has slowed down construction.

It's true that the Nigerian govt leaves much to be desired in terms of leadership,but it's untrue to think that all of this can be handled by any one govt.

Everyone knows that it's the private sector (i.e Businesses)and NOT government, that are the key drivers of employment in any capital driven society. The question we should be asking is why there is no investment to prop up the textile sector and keep it from sinking.

The summary of my point is that if the MTNs,MOBILs and ETISALATs of this world can make Billions of dollars in Nigeria from investments why can't we find another company(s) to invest in the textile industry and create employment whilst making their own profits. This i think IS the role of govt i.e to incentivise investments by offering things like reduction of bureaucratic red tape,reduced corporate tax,provision of serviced i.e (24hrs power and security)business premises and sites. This i think will go a long way!

ngozievergreen:
leave dese ppl. Tell me d principle of d occam's razor.

Its about demand and supply. Do we have an export market for adire or ankara?

The Asians have made significant stride and cornered the juicy markets - North America & Europe

occam:

Without power this revamping will just be money down the drain. Lack of power and over dependence on generator drove cost up significantly, so the sector became noncompetitive.

Fix the power sector first. period

Bros we are talking of a 'going concern' entity here, waiting for the government to fully fix the power sector before doing business is plain unseriousness on the path of the investor.

Despite the current harsh business climate, companies are still doing business in Nigeria, the government is working assiduously to ensure that power (gas inclusive) is fully restored.

Thanks

Enough of this analysis by PDP government.If they have anything good to do, they should better do it and stop telling nigerian story everyday.
The decadence do not start over night, they have seated at the elms of affair for sometimes now and instead of finding solution, they kept on telling nigerian the extent of damage that successive government have cursed, are those that formed the government not part of PDP? big question, big question indeed, I wish all nigeria will see through their noise and understand that the line between poverty and our success is PDP

All I want to say is,textile workers sabi play pool well wel o

Maxymilliano:

Bros we are talking of a 'going concern' entity here, waiting for the government to fully fix the power sector before doing business is plain unseriousness on the path of the investor.

Despite the current harsh business climate, companies are still doing business in Nigeria, the government is working assiduously to ensure that power (gas inclusive) is fully restored.

Thanks

So what killed this sector and resulted in loss of nearly 800,000 jobs?

[b]My people, it's good to note that government officials are brainstorming on how to rescue the textile industry. This Jonathan presidency that many Nigerians are lampooning might just end up as one of the best administration in Nigeria like the Super Eagles turned from super chickens to Cup Winners before our very eyes. Jonathan might not look inspirational, he might not look presidential enough, he might not be an orator, he might not have enough balls to fight corruptuption as we desire, but he is certainly getting certain criticals things right. He is getting it right in Railway, He is doing much in the power sector,etc The good results that we seek are coming slowly and steadily. It wount be long before many of us realise that this man is actualy working. Ofcourse he certainly needs to do a lot more in many other sectors. He most certainly needs to grow some balls to fight corruption headlong. Let us learn from our mistakes in not having faith in the Super Eagles early enough. Let us stop lampooning but encourage Mr Goodluck Jonathan to do more to get us out of the woods. With more faith in our president, he might just spring a surprise like the super eagle and get this country standing on its feet once again.[/b]

It's good they've recognised the problem so what's the solution? Secure the country, provide enough electricity, lower taxes for manufacturing buisnesses, provision of cheap and effective labour and finally provide better infastructure for exports and i assure the government that every texile company that has left will return and even the south african once will relocate!!

The Textile sector is already bn revampd finali....more work needed though

Gr8 ideas,gud development on textile.being a textile personal,i realise that this 'll go a long way to bring back the glory of d textile sector.One other thing that 'll be lovely to add to this lovely ideas of our ministers is 4 the federal government to look into the demands of the bank of industries from indigenious technologist as concerning loan conditions with special reference to collateral which is too high and difficult to meet.

occam:

So what killed this sector and resulted in loss of nearly 800,000 jobs?

Bros, what killed the sector is liberalization, and Nigeria joining the World Trade Organization, that's why there's influx of foreign product into markets of member countries, especially from Asia and which render local industries less productive and competitive...