₦airaland Forum

Nigeria once had one of the largest textile industries in Africa. From the 1950s through the 1980s, textile factories played a major role in industrialization, employment generation, and economic growth. The industry relied heavily on locally grown cotton and supplied fabrics to both domestic and regional markets.

1. Kaduna Textiles Limited (KTL) – The Pioneer Textile Mill

One of the most significant milestones in Nigeria’s textile history was the establishment of Kaduna Textiles Limited. Planning began in 1955 through a partnership between the Northern Nigerian government and the British firm David Whitehead & Sons. The factory commenced production in 1957 and became the first large-scale textile mill in Nigeria. Within its first year, KTL produced approximately 8 million metres of cotton fabric using locally sourced cotton.

The success of KTL transformed Kaduna into Nigeria’s textile hub and encouraged the establishment of additional textile factories across the region.

2. The Rise of Kaduna’s Textile Cluster

Following the success of KTL, several major textile factories emerged in Kaduna, including:

United Nigerian Textiles Limited (UNTL)
Arewa Textiles
Nortex
During the oil boom years of the 1970s, these factories expanded their spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finishing operations. Kaduna became one of the most important industrial cities in West Africa, with thousands of workers employed directly and many more supported through cotton farming, transportation, and trading activities.

3. Kano’s Textile Manufacturing Powerhouse

Kano developed into another major textile centre, building on its centuries-old tradition of cotton production and dyeing. By the 1980s, Kano hosted numerous textile factories and was regarded as one of Nigeria’s leading manufacturing cities.

The textile industry became the second-largest employer of labour after the Federal Government, providing over 500,000 jobs nationwide during its peak years. Markets such as Kantin Kwari became major distribution centres for locally produced fabrics.

4. Industry Peak and Economic Impact

By the mid-1980s, Nigeria’s textile industry had become a cornerstone of the manufacturing sector:

Over 250,000 direct workers were employed in textile factories by 1985.
The industry accounted for roughly 20% of manufacturing employment.
Textile and apparel production was among the leading contributors to consumer goods manufacturing.
Millions of cotton farmers, traders, and suppliers depended on the textile value chain.
Many historical accounts also note that Nigeria once had over 180 textile mills, producing fabrics for local consumption and export across West Africa.

5. Decline of the Industry

Beginning in the late 1980s and accelerating through the 1990s and 2000s, the industry experienced severe decline due to:

Inadequate power supply
Rising production costs
Smuggling of cheaper imported fabrics
Counterfeit textile products
Policy inconsistencies
Difficulty importing spare parts and modern machinery after economic reforms

By 2007, major Kaduna factories such as KTL, Arewa Textiles, and UNTL had largely ceased operations. Employment fell dramatically from hundreds of thousands of workers to fewer than 20,000 jobs nationwide in recent years.

Legacy of Nigeria’s Textile Industry

Despite its decline, the Nigerian textile industry remains a symbol of the country’s industrial potential. The sector helped build major cities such as Kaduna and Kano, created hundreds of thousands of jobs, stimulated cotton production, and contributed significantly to Nigeria’s manufacturing development.



A Modern Success Story

Today, a new generation of textile and fabric companies is helping to sustain Nigeria’s rich textile heritage. Among them is Ola Daviva International, a modern textile company that is gaining recognition for the production of high-quality customized fabrics. Through innovation, creativity, and customer-focused fabric solutions, Ola Daviva International represents the evolving future of Nigeria’s textile industry and demonstrates how local enterprises can continue the legacy of textile manufacturing in the country.

Credit: www.oladaviva.com.ng

Lost glory of our textile mill

BAD LOOTERS MASQUREDING AS LEADERS.

The real big reasons are China and running our refinereis and power sector at a loss in the name of cheap fuel and cheap electricity.

Smuggling was an issue, but intially locally made was far better than the smuggled ones...

Globalization killed them all

Nigeria is designed to be a failed state

MrPresident1:
Globalization killed them all

You see what I am talking about

You are a perfect example of a real Nigerian and the way we reason

Did globalization kill other countries textile industries?

We always find a way to defend our bad leaders because he is from our region or based on religion affiliation

So we don't hold them accountable

MrPresident1:
Globalization killed them all

Eggsactly. Once the barriers fell down in the nineties, plus Chinese industries coming online with their very cheap labour costs....that was the end.

AdamuKD:
Nigeria is designed to be a failed state

In the USA , there is a large part of the country called the Rust belt. It has a lot of collapsed industries and so forth...and most of them failed because they could not compete globally among other things.

I guess US is a failed state.

Nigeria is not a failed state because some industries collapsed, it is a failed state because our economic policy is based on selling oil.

AdamuKD:
You see what I am talking about

You a perfect example of a real Nigerian and the way we reason

Did globalization kill other countries textile industries?

We always find a way to defend our leaderships because he is from our region or based on religion affiliation

So we don't hold accountable

IN a way he is right. I still blame the Nigerian govt for part of the collapse, (Not running refineries, and power sector well, as well as being so protectionsist that the industry was set in its ways and could not compete globally) but the major one was globalization...

Once China became an industrial juggernaut, a lot of countries industries, not just in textiles , could not compete. Maasive cheap labour, high population, far more factories, etc...you get the picture.

Some years ago, South Africa closed its largest steel mill, because steel imports from china were much cheaper.

Imagine, from over 250,000 to a mere 20,00 employee, and there are still so many companies folding up in this country , increasing the unemployment rate, truly, there was a country.

nairalanda1:
In the USA , there is a large part of the country called the Rust belt. It has a lot of collapsed industries and so forth...and most of them failed because they could not compete globally among other things.

I guess US is a failed state.

Nigeria is not a failed state because some industries collapsed, it is a failed state because our economic policy is based on selling oil.

Now tell me which section of our industry is working

Just one

nairalanda1:
In the USA , there is a large part of the country called the Rust belt. It has a lot of collapsed industries and so forth...and most of them failed because they could not compete globally among other things.

I guess US is a failed state.

Nigeria is not a failed state because some industries collapsed, it is a failed state because our economic policy is based on selling oil.

Exactly! Apt response to that fellow

One of the sector of the economy that constantly keep people employed until used clothes eliminated the factory, importation of rubbish into Nigeria is a major problem

Beleaguered labor of our heroes past.....

Na where Adams Oshiomhole start him stubborness be that

Adams Oshiomole should bring back our yams

Nigeria has no industrial policy. If you even manage to set up a factory business, corrupt and predatory civil servants/politicians will keep extorting you until you give up and quit.Even Dangote may eventually give up with the level of sabotage he suffers from unscrupulous government officials.

When shall those days be here again in Nigeria?

Noted.

Nigeria once had one of the largest textile industries in Africa. From the 1950s through the 1980s, textile factories played a major role in industrialization, employment generation, and economic growth. The industry relied heavily on locally grown cotton and supplied fabrics to both domestic and regional markets.

once’s upon a time, there was a country called Giant of Africa but this same old criminals that enjoyed the good Nigeria has destroyed the system in order to favor their greedy and selfish interests. Before you support bad governance please go an watch documentary of Nigeria in the 50’s then you will understand why we are a failed nation 😔

This was a time!

Nigeria has to aggressively get back at industrialization. To do this, we need to have a stable political system where the government can plan for 20 years and follow it through.

The country must be restructured to make States and Local Governments have viable autonomies, so that they can compete against each other on the industrialization track. The overcentralization of almost everything in Nigeria towards Abuja feeds red-tapism, corruption and blunts real development.

We need to know that the problem is us, and not the political parties. All the parties are essentially the same, and there is no PO-ssible miracle, just like BAT has been unable to give us a better country in 4years. We need 20 years of sustained development with a firm blueprint in the first instance.

That's Nigeria's realistic chance.

There was also Odua textile.

One of the reasons for the collapse of our textile industries is poor electricity supply.

AdamuKD:
You see what I am talking about

You a perfect example of a real Nigerian and the way we reason

Did globalization kill other countries textile industries?

We always find a way to defend our leaderships because he is from our region or based on religion affiliation

So we don't hold them accountable

He's partly right. Our leaders didn't know what globalisation meant. In 9ja, we find excuses to choose foreign brands as a mark of taste and status. Like those bragging of drinking 40 years old whiskey from Tennessee or Scotland.

Sagacious leaders in Asia quickly figured out that only those who can cheaply produce and export in huge quantities benefit from globalisation. Otherwise, you will remain dependent and in poverty.

Growing up, we had cotton trees everywhere. So, our soil is good to produce the key textile raw material. We have exported local clothes/textile, through the Europeans/Portuguese, buying from along the Bight of Benin and selling along the Coast, to Angola and beyond. The Portuguese documented this trade centuries ago.

This story won't be complete without the patron saint of Oshiomole's Assembly of Past Criminals, APC. The man who rose from being a textile worker and tailor in Kaduna to trade unionist, to activist, governor etc to flying opio CSW escorts on private jets massaging her feet.

How much of the failure of the textile industry and other sectors is due to[b] our averseness to deregulation and privatisation, which unlocked the potentials of our economy for 16 years[/b] that PDP gave us widespread prosperity, peace and stability?

How do we get our country back from APC pseudo progressive socialists, who are giving us extreme poverty and insecurity shege instead of the positive change promised us, after Tinubu went to Kaduna to beg Buhari out of retirement for the purpose of making Jonathan a one term president?



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Tta19OYEE?si=HknaDB2bw8FaAD3r

anonimi:
Neo-black Problem: Must Blacks Be Ruled by Whites in Order to Prosper?

In short, the neo-black dilemma may be framed as follows: is it better to live under white rule without political dignity but with basic life-sustaining standards for many;

or to live under black rule with illusory political dignity and without basic life- sustaining standards for the majority?
@
@
The path forward for Africa lies in cultivating higher and adequate levels of personal and communal agential integrity as well as full personal responsibility and productivity. Not to mention creativity (including epistemic creativity), productive justice (such as merit and freedom), harmony and reconciliation at local and international levels, and a proper domestication of capitalism and other related values and institutions.

Africa must stop wasting her time on dreams of socialism because it is a system of wealth distribution primarily. Whereas, capitalism is a system of wealth creation primarily, and wealth has to be produced before it can be distributed.

https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/10/12/neo-black-problem-must-blacks-be-ruled-by-whites-in-order-to-prosper/

nairalanda1:
The real big reasons are China and running our refinereis and power sector at a loss in the name of cheap fuel and cheap electricity.

Smuggling was an issue, but intially locally made was far better than the smuggled ones...

Mismanagement was the biggest culprit,many of those companies were poorly managed and absolutely failed to evolve over time,the Asians have taken over textile manufacturing and new business models have evolved over time......cotton cost more than polyester or nylon,if many of managers of these companies were foresighted enough,they would have been able to mitigate that challenge and found ways round it.

AdamuKD:
You see what I am talking about

You are a perfect example of a real Nigerian and the way we reason

Did globalization kill other countries textile industries?

We always find a way to defend our bad leaders because he is from our region or based on religion affiliation

So we don't hold them accountable

Oga keep quiet!!.....the United kingdom used to be a textile powerhouse of the world in the past but thats equally no more,China and India,Bangladesh,Vietnam, cambodia,thailand have all taken over that sector.....was it bad leadership that cost uk too.....Turkey is the only country in Europe thats still big on textiles.

Futureyahooboi:
once’s upon a time, there was a country called Giant of Africa but this same old criminals that enjoyed the good Nigeria has destroyed the system in order to favor their greedy and selfish interests. Before you support bad governance please go an watch documentary of Nigeria in the 50’s then you will understand why we are a failed nation 😔

Your parents and their parents inclusive......Nigeria didn't start to rot under tinubu,the decline had been systemic since after the first republic, the advent of the military n governance further worsened the decline and it would take another 20 years at the least to get back on the trajectory we were headed in our first 5 years of independence.......my parents too are equally guilty.

MrPresident1:
Globalization killed them all

Even with mismanagement and other factors that contributed to their failure, it's hard to agree less with your submission.