seguno2:


You are correct about continuity and completion of existing projects.
However, people like me are not the problem.
It is people like whoever wrote the OP to give the false impression that railways were nonexistent until Buhari came into power.

I have read and read the news as posted by OP, I didn't see anywhere he claimed railways were non existent. It is even common knowledge that tracks are non laid where they don't exist before.

Yes you may not be the problem but you thinking and analysis based on dislike for the man Buhari is the problem. Never let sentiments becloud your discussion. Hatred for Buhari shouldn't be hatred for Nigeria.

Let the IGP appointed by the presidency read this us!

Our eyes don clear

Okoroawusa:

You actually entered a train in the south east?

Yep and its been on for over a year now.Ofcourse like me alot of ppl arent aware.Very cheap,convenient and time friendly.

Okoroawusa:

You actually entered a train in the south east?

Yep and its been on for over a year now.Ofcourse like me alot of ppl arent aware.Very cheap,convenient and time friendly.

Imagine #200 inter state.

Railway contracts signed, CAMA reviewed, currency swap deal with China completed. All in a month, long live Nigeria

laudate:


It is NOT a myth that our companies would close, if our borders are thrown open to all manner of importation. We did it with textiles in the 90s. What happened? All kinds of fabrics and materials streamed into our country unchecked. And all our textile factories shut down, one after the other. In 2009, about 2,500 textile workers lost their jobs, when just three textile factories closed down in the North. Today less that 10% of the textile factories that remain in the market, are still functional.

Though your report about the death of the textile industry is deep, it is not deep enough.

What brought about the death of the Nigerian textile industry can be summed up in one word: China.

Nigeria's textile industry was still relevant in the 1990's but China ultra competitive textile industry with imports from other countries completely annihilated the textile manufacturers.

What is strange however is that Benin Republic despite have low tariffs on textile fabrics still had their textile factories humming. So, imports were not only the reasons for the collapse here.

First and foremost, Nigeria is a high cost place to produce goods due to the dearth of good infrastructure especially power. This has hiked cost.

The biggest problem though is the high cost of credit which has dealt a huge blow on the real sectors of the economy holding them back.

Also again, Nigeria was not exporting textiles massively. This is bizarre. Third world countries start to manufactured exports are textiles which they export in large quantities. If Nigeria was exporting , it would have been a cushion against cheap imports.

Question is: How battered is the Nigeria textile sector.

Though textile fabrics was hurt, Nigeria has thousands of small scale tailors dependent on fabrics .m I am sure they alone engage over a million people. The Economist calls that the kind of the unflashy industrialization that actually creates jobs.

COMPAQ:


There probably isn't any Nigerian company with the competence to participate in the project. We are good administrators in Nigeria, but not good creative thinkers and visionaries.

But for over 55yrs of independence, that no naija company is able to handle a heavy engineering projects like railway construction is disgraceful and disheartening. You say we are great administrator. Administrators of What? Are we going to run the show while these foreign companies handle the engineering work on this project however they think they can maximize the profits made from this project? As usual our administrator will like fools and let these foreign hit the jackpot with the overinflated cost of handling this project

grandstar:
Though your report about the death of the textile industry is deep, it is not deep enough.

What brought about the death of the Nigerian textile industry can be summed up in one word: China.

Nigeria's textile industry was still relevant in the 1990's but China ultra competitive textile industry with imports from other countries completely annihilated the textile manufacturers.

What is strange however is that Benin Republic despite have low tariffs on textile fabrics still had their textile factories humming. So, imports were not only the reasons for the collapse here.

First and foremost, Nigeria is a high cost place to produce goods due to the dearth of good infrastructure especially power. This has hiked cost.

The biggest problem though is the high cost of credit which has dealt a huge blow on the real sectors of the economy holding them back.

Also again, Nigeria was not exporting textiles massively. This is bizarre. Third world countries start to manufactured exports are textiles which they export in large quantities. If Nigeria was exporting , it would have been a cushion against cheap imports.

Question is: How battered is the Nigeria textile sector.

Though textile fabrics was hurt, Nigeria has thousands of small scale tailors dependent on fabrics .m I am sure they alone engage over a million people. The Economist calls that the kind of the unflashy industrialization that actually creates jobs.

If you read my post properly, you would see the excerpt I quoted which attributed the demise of the Nigerian textile industry to cheap imports from China and India. I also posted another report from an online medium which further amplified that fact.

Nigeria was not exporting textiles massively, because there was already a huge domestic market that was consuming most of what was being produced by those textile factories. They could hardly meet local demand at that time, so what was the need for export way back then? Not only that, a lot of informal, undocumented trade went on among West African countries, which saw large volumes of textiles being sold across borders.

Finally, your assertion that "Nigeria has thousands of small scale tailors dependent on fabrics....they alone engage over a million people," is not grounded or backed by any known study. Even when the textile mills were operational, most of these tailors were already on ground practising their craft. So it is not as if tailoring suddenly came up, to replace the textile workers, neither was tailoring a non-existent craft/trade, when the textile mills were still in full operation. The large numbers of workers employed by the textile mills who later lost their jobs, ran into thousands. Even the ancillary small-scale enterprises that made & sold dyes, threads, yarn as well as other little raw materials used in the textile industry also crashed along with them. There is no survey to show that those who lost their jobs in the textile mills were later re-trained as tailors, which could have led to replacement jobs, or an increase in jobs within a different sector.

So kindly stop drawing such parallels. It is like comparing apples with cocoyams....

laudate:


If you read my post properly, you would see the excerpt I quoted which attributed the demise of the Nigerian textile industry to cheap imports from China and India. I also posted another report from an online medium which further amplified that fact.

I think I need to go further here. China is the primary reason the textile industry is the way it is today.

China's rise had a devastating effect on manufacturing in many Third World nations and industrialized countries.

In 1990, China accounted for 3% of world's manufacturing. As of 2014, this had grown to 25%. The region around China controls about 50% of world's manufacturing and is called, "Factory Asia"

This obviously involved them taking market share in many industries. China was a monster in the textile market and eventually controlled 44% of production. The huge market share has only reduced marginally due to rising labor cost but they are ramming up productivity to remain competitive.. It took large parts of the export market share of other countries to the advanced countries.

China's rise had a destabilizing effects globally.

The collapse of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia in 1997 can partly be ascribed to China.

Though these countries had massive current account surpluses, they would have been better able to manage and recover from the crisis that struck in 1997 if China hadn't been sucking foreign investments away from them.

China's rise also led to the loss of 3,000,000 manufacturing jobs in the U.S.A. The damage wouldn't have been so bad but China runs a needless mercantilist trade system where it discourages imports. This lopsided system led to global imbalances which was one of the factors that triggered the Great Recession in 2008.

We should not forget China's over production of goods and it's export of deflation which helped keep inflation in the developed world but also led to very low lending rates in the rich world which led to a credit boom (sub prime lending inclusive) and to a bust which was the primary catalyst for a the Great Recession.

[/quote]
Nigeria was not exporting textiles massively, because there was already a huge domestic market that was consuming most of what was being produced by those textile factories. They could hardly meet local demand at that time, so what was the need for export way back then? Not only that, a lot of informal, undocumented trade went on among West African countries, which saw large volumes of textiles being sold across borders. [/quote]

I disagree with you on this.

China is has been a ferocious exporter of textiles for years despite having the largest population in the world. Also India.

The fact that Nigeria did not take advantage of markets in the EU and America is a sad pointer to the sad state of industry in the country.


[/quote]
Finally, your assertion that "Nigeria has thousands of small scale tailors dependent on fabrics....they alone engage over a million people," is not grounded or backed by any known study. Even when the textile mills were operational, most of these tailors were already on ground practising their craft. So it is not as if tailoring suddenly came up, to replace the textile workers, neither was tailoring a non-existent craft/trade, when the textile mills were still in full operation. The large numbers of workers employed by the textile mills who later lost their jobs, ran into thousands. Even the ancillary small-scale enterprises that made & sold dyes, threads, yarn as well as other little raw materials used in the textile industry also crashed along with them. There is no survey to show that those who lost their jobs in the textile mills were later re-trained as tailors, which could have led to replacement jobs, or an increase in jobs within a different sector.

So kindly stop drawing such parallels. It is like comparing apples with cocoyams.... [/quote]

I do agree with you in some areas.

Yes, the tailors already existed when local textiles were still in production.

My point of actually bringing up the issue of local tailors was to show that it's not as bad as you paint it.

I think Nigeria has comparative advantage in making garments but manufacturers either lack the funds or expertise to achieve it. Also, there's the dearth of foreign investors in the garment sector.

Why I said Nigeria may have comparative advantage is that many of the shirts and trousers for sale locally are actually made here. This is strange considering the unappealing environment. Yes, the quality of the finishing gives a lot to be worried about but it shows potential.

Were the government to implement a zero % import duty on fabrics and provide 5 or even 10 year tax holiday to garment manufacturers, I feel there will be a flood of investors from overseas especially from China considering rising labour costs there.

The garment companies has the potential of employing millions of workers and it will help revive fabric manufacturing as many garment makers will need some of their fabrics made locally which they can receive quickly and turn to garments rather that wait weeks for fabrics from China or Vietnam.That's one of the secrets of Zara. They can reach their markets fast.

Herdeydeen:
Safe all these lies abeg........... Till Nigerians can work in lagos and stay in Ibadan and transport via Rail i will not believe all these lies

Nobody is even sure when exactly the Lagos - Ibadan rail line will be completed. The date keeps changing everyday.