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Manufacturers under the aegis of the Nigerian Textile Employers Association have said that smuggling of textile products through Nigeria’s land borders, has led to the collapse of over 150 textile companies in the last 40 years.
The Director-General of the association, Hamma Kwajaffa disclosed this in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH.
According to him, the closure of the Nigeria-Niger border, which had left several trucks of textile products stranded on the border, was evidence that inferior textile products had been entering the country at the expense of the local textile industry.
He noted that in 1980, Nigeria had about 180 textile firms in operation; but had less than 24 functional mills today
Kwajaffa said, “The long trucks coming to Nigeria contain textiles, you can see how textiles in Nigeria started closing. They are diverting from the ports, they are using land borders. They bring in fake, counterfeited textiles.
“They are coming through the land border to avoid checking. They subvert and bribe their way to come in, now because of the coup, they are held there. They are selling cheaper and closing our textile industries.”
Currently, Nigeria had about 24 textile companies. This number represented a significant decline from about 180 textile mills that were operational 40 years back.
Over the years, operators in the industry had blamed government neglect and excessive importation for the collapse of the local industry.
Speaking further, Kwajaffa said the Nigerian textile industry placed a premium on cotton for production, which was more expensive than the polyester products being smuggled into the country.
He said, “If they go through the ports, they will go through clearance. They will check the quality before allowing the goods to come into the country, but they are coming in through the land borders.
“We are forced to use cotton because of backward integration for our cotton farmers. But they use polyester, which is a by-product of crude. It is cheaper, so they flood the market with counterfeits, forcing the closure of our textile mills.”
According to figures obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, textile imports into Nigeria doubled in two years.
The data indicated that the importation of textile and textile articles rose by 100.3 per cent to N365.5bn in 2022, the highest in at least 15 years, from N182.5bn in 2020.
The government, on its part, had introduced interventions to revive the once boisterous sector, even though these interventions had had little impact
One of those interventions was the N50bn special mechanism fund by the Central Bank of Nigeria to revive the ailing textiles industry.
The funds were to be administered by the Bank of Industry at 4.5 per cent interest rate, and would use any of the CBN-approved non-interest instruments for refinancing of projects, long-term financing for the acquisition of plant and machinery and working capital for the beneficiaries
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