18th Annual joint education conference of the National Union of Textiles, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) and Nigeria Textile, Garment Tailoring Employers Association (NTGTEA) was held in Lagos last week, where Government was urged to save the textile industry from extinction.
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, President of Nigerian Labour Congress blamed the Government for its failure to curb the smuggling of textile materials hurting the local textile units.
Nigeria Textile, Garment Employers Association's Director-General, John Olanrewaju, said that they were led to believe that Government must be held responsible for the entire mess as each and every problem facing the textile industry falls within the preview of the Government.
He also listed out issues like global depression, devaluation of French Franc and constant inflow of South East Asian fabrics in West African sub-region were beyond Government control.
Oshiomhole urged Government to revise the prices of diesel and black oil also called as LFPO as it had seen many fold increase in recent times which has badly affected the manufacturers of textile.
Jacob Buba Gyang, the Comptroller General of Nigerian Custom Service expressed their inability to check smuggling saying that they lacked in manpower and technical prowess to guard the long borderline of Nigeria.
Nigerian Finance Minister, Tokunbo Balogun said that Government was doing its level best to revive the textile sector; introduction of Customs External Tariff (CET), the introduction of destination inspection and formation of a committee to mobilize N50 billion were some of the examples.
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