Addressing
members of the National Union of Textile
Garment Workers of Nigeria (NUTGWN) in Kano at its Quadrennial Delegates
Conference with ‘Back to the basics’
as its theme the other day, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, said the Federal Government was committed
to combating smuggling and dumping of textiles and garments in the market. The
government is also committed to developing infrastructure and enhancing doing
business in the country. The Vice-President recalled that “since independence, successive governments adopted different
industrial policies, such as the substitution of the industrialisation policy
of 1960, as well as the Nigerian industrialisation policy of 1972, Structural
Adjustment Programme of 1986, Trade Liberalisation Policy of 1989 and many
others.” However, the impacts of these policies have been discouraging,
wobbling and epileptic.
Therefore,
the Nigerian cotton, textile garment and tailoring industry is in dire need of
urgent and necessary repositioning and transformation, and driven by modern
technology. There are textile plants in Abeokuta,
Ibadan, Lagos, Enugu, Aba, Onitsha, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto to mention but a
few. But individual, corporate and government efforts in this direction are
marred by lack of necessary manpower, infrastructure, energy and finance.
Close
studies of the existing textile garment and tailoring companies show that they
are all still operating below capacity. In providing stable power and access to
finance through the Bank of Industry, a new policy must emphasize as much as
possible the production of quality seed for cotton farmers through credit bonus
and incentive.
This is also
the point at which the preservation of the Nigeria ecosystem and natural
habitats will constitute a vital assignment for the ministry of agriculture for
the purpose of rejuvenation of raw materials for textile products.
“Textile
designs as an industrial sector that include weaving, spinning and fashion
technologies should not only be promoted by the governments, but should also be
private sector-driven, in order to promote small and medium scale
entrepreneurship. Government should enhance prioritisation of skills
development and internationalisation of the sector while solving the problems
of inadequate infrastructure and financing, informality, distortion,
standardisation challenges, lack of access to international markets, smuggling
and the dumping of used cloths and many more”
as identified by Professor Osibanjo.
Nigerian
cultural and synthetic yarns or objects such as Abada, Adire, Aso-Oke can be made into international standards.
Hence, it is possible to foster a textile regime where fabric structures could
combine thin metallic alloys with natural and synthetic ones like indigenous
cotton, polyester or silk, making it strong enough to be transformed or woven
on any industrial loom.
Again
government’s policies on the textile sector should include formalizing such in
schools and systems of thought with a view to repositioning the industry on the
international market. It is, therefore, heartwarming that President Muhammadu
Buhari is committed to industrialising the sector and creating an enabling
environment through well thought out policies.
Commitment
to the sector’s sustainable growth should be total on part of the workers
mutually reciprocal between the workers and government. To harness the latent,
goldmine of textile industry in the cultural and aesthetic diversity of
Nigeria, government should be committed to the establishment of textile departments
and subjects or courses in secondary and tertiary institutions and fund textile
garment and tailoring research.
The
secondary and tertiary education curriculum should not be left out in adjusting
to the necessities for the growth of modern science and technology. Textile
student’s orientation in logical and critical thinking, knowledge of computer
and ICT will help to promote and sustain the desired skill, knowledge and
exposure necessary to grapple with modern aesthetics and technologies of the textile
industry in Nigeria.
As a follow
up, it behooves the government to streamline her establishment of National Research and Innovation Council
(NRIC), National Research and Innovation Fund (NRIF), Science and Technology
Development Bank (STDB) and Bank of
Industry (BOI) for the common end of stimulating the textile sector and the
industrial sector in general. (Guardian)
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