Underlying the importance of the textile sector to Nigeria’s overall economy and development, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, has called upon the stakeholders to the country’s textile and garment industry, saying it’s capable of creating over 2 million jobs if fully harnessed.
Emefiele also maintained that reviving the cotton and garment sector would also improve Internally Generated Revenue besides creating large-scale employment opportunities.
“The textile industry can reduce over US $ 4 billion import bills annually, and save our hard earned foreign exchange, while accelerating the industrial development of the country, and making Nigeria a global player in the textile and garment subsector,” maintained Emefiele at a stakeholders’ meeting with top ranking officers of the Nigerian military, paramilitary as well as cotton, textile and garment producers or/farmers in Abuja recently.
“Like you all know, in the 1980s and 1990s, Nigeria was recognised to be Africa’s largest textile industry with over 180 textile mills in operations employing close to over 450,000 people, and contributing over 25 per cent of the workforce in the manufacturing sector. Today, most of the factories have stopped operations, as only 25 textile factories are operational at below 20 per cent of their production capacity, and the workforce of the textile industry stands at less than 20,000 people,” lamented the Governor of CBN while reminiscing the past glory days of Nigeria’s textile sector.
