Minister laments textile sector's underperformance
14 Sep '06
1 min read
Nenadi Usman, the Finance Minister has lamented the fact that textile industry was not doing enough to give fillip to nation's economy.
She was critical of the fact that companies have been performing below their capacity and cited the example of number of factories that have been shut down.
The Minister pointed out that during the last decade, country boasted 178 textile mills and employed over half a million people catering effectively the problem of unemployment.
Adding that the industry was second largest in Africa possessing important raw materials that drive its sectors ought to be successful, she quipped.
Minister regretted the fact that industry was second to Egypt in terms of performance and economic delivery in spite of having such favourable atmosphere in recent times.
Government has also tried to remove incongruities and introduced new Customs External Tariff which will reduce the tariff bands from 21 to 5 and will merge the rates between zero to 50 percent.
The new Customs External Tariff places textile materials and fabrics on the prohibition list further protecting the industry.
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