Lagos – The Nigeria Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association has urged the Federal Government to prosecute smugglers to revive the ailing industries in the country.
The Director-General of the association, Mr Hamm Kwajaffa made appeal on Friday in Lagos, at the Textile and Garment Manufacturing Conference organised by Africa Fashion Week Nigeria (AFWN) 2016 in Lagos.
Kwajaffa spoke on “Challenges in the manufacturing industry’’.
He said that mere seizure of products was not enough to encourage local production and patronage.
According to him, the government should eradicate smuggling to the barest minimum by the diligent prosecution of smugglers and destruction of smuggled goods.
“There should be patronage of locally produced goods by the government at all levels through effective policy.
“Besides, the unavailability of cotton, which forms the raw material for production, has been a challenge to the textile industry,” he said.
He said that these challenges were the reasons why the manufacturing, especially the textile sector was uncompetitive.
Kwajaffa said, “We are not competitive locally not to talk about in the international market.’’
“The high cost of production in the country makes us uncompetitive. More so, 95 per cent of the textile market is dominated by smuggled, counterfeited and fake fabrics.”
The Director-General urged the government to create an enabling environment for the industry to thrive by solving the problem of power and bad roads in the country.
Mrs Folake Oyemade, the Managing Director of Sam and Sara Ltd., said that poor patronage of locally produced garment was a major impediment to the industry.
She complained that the acceptability and patronage of local textile and clothing was low compared to the imported ones.
Oyemade urged the government to exploit opportunities of Africa Growth Opportunities Act (AGOA) to promote the entrant of Nigerian textile and clothing into the international market.
She said, “Most African countries have increased their GDP through the AGOA initiative but Nigeria is still lagging behind.
“We need to tap into this opportunity because the fashion industry is huge and Africa is generating attention from the global community.”
Ms Jennifer Anoyika, the Director-General, Nigerian-German Business Association (NGBA), said that the country’s textile industry was fragmented and required a pragmatic approach to revive it. (NAN)
Textile group urges FG to prosecute smugglers to rebound manufacturing sector
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