Nigeria’s cumulative value of textiles and garments imported or smuggled into the country is worth $4.2 billion, according to minister of state for industry, trade and investment Aisha Abubakar, who said the government is losing $325 million in annual revenues because of heavy influx of cheap textile and garments and low impact of policy interventions.
She was speaking recently at a policy meeting on cotton, textiles and garments.
The sector is currently prioritised in the country’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) as well as the Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) due to its strategic importance to employment generation, wealth creation and industrial development, Nigerian media reports quoted the minister as saying.
Abubakar, however, lamented that the outcome of the policy intervention was yet to materialise due to constraints like insufficient cotton seeds for production, the high cost of operations, smuggling and counterfeiting, high influx of cheap textile and garments, lack of enabling infrastructure and absence of quality and standards.
The government wants to create jobs for about a million people by 2023 in the sector, achieve self sufficiency and contribute 20 per cent share of the country’s total export earnings through textiles and garment exports which is projected to reach $2 billion by 2025, she added.
