Committee to raise N50 bn to revive textile sector
17 Jul '06
1 min read
Under the Chairmanship of the Finance Minister Nenadi Usman a committee has been set up by Nigerian government to mobilize N50 billion to revive the textile industry by providing simple loan to the textile operators.
Decline in this sector has been attributed to the globalisation process which is highly misleading as introduction of hostile textile importation policies especially Structural Adjustment Programme of mid 1980s proved fatal for the industry.
Cheap import of textiles from other countries made the production cost cheaper destroying the local industry which resulted in shutting down of more than 100 textiles units from1985 to 1995 making people jobless and also made farmers change their line.
Long before globalisation, Textile industry boasted of more than 200 units providing direct jobs to 500,000 people and another 1.5 million indirectly but the decline has reduced the people employed with it to 40,000 and only 25 factories operational with a 45 percent production against their total capacity.
Mere financial help would not prove enough for the revival of this industry as policy needs to be changed first to curb the unlimited volume of import and secondly proper implementation of the rehabilitation package must be insured by proper monitoring.
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