AS the nation awaits the conclusion of the inconclusive/suspended elections across the country and the commencement of legal fireworks over the re-election of President Muhammadu Buhari, which the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, is contesting in the courts, it is necessary to refocus national attention on the critical issue of governance and what the government is doing now to bring the change it promised Nigerians closer home.
One such recent step, which might easily escape the people in the euphoria and drama of the electoral season, is the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to restrict the sale of foreign exchange to importers of textile and other clothing materials. The decision, according to the apex bank, will save the country the over $4 billion expended on the importation of these materials and finished clothing annually, thereby reducing the pressure on the naira. Nigerians’ love for all things foreign, and the unbridled importation of everyday clothing items such as tee-shirts, towels, scarves, handkerchiefs, napkins, underwear and the like, is at the root of the sorry exchange rate of the naira which is hovering around N350 to the dollar and N450 to a pound sterling.
If Nigerians can make the required sacrifice and buy locally produced textiles, the huge forex required to bring in imported textiles will reduce, thereby positively increasing the value of the naira to the dollar. The over-dependence on foreign textiles does nothing for the country. It only boosts the economies of the countries from which we import these products and keeps their factories running, while our own youths roam about the streets in search of employment. Unemployment in Nigeria has not only become a time bomb which could explode in all our faces at anytime, it is already at the root of the rising insecurity in the country and it also provides an endless mass of idle and disenchanted youths serving as foot soldiers of the Boko Haram insurgency.
If we can grow our own cotton, produce our own textile materials and sew our own garments, we will create hundreds of thousands of jobs for our farmers, tailors and traders. Going this way will, indeed, be difficult, but it is a challenge that the nation must face and surmount. No developing nation can become great by being a perennial consumer of products from other nations. And, no serious economy allows the unbridled dumping of foreign products in its markets. Nigeria should not be an exception. We simply cannot afford it.
We must be ready to encourage local production of textile materials and allied products by wearing whatever quality of products we can make, and our Chinese suppliers must be ready to either come and set up their factories here and employ our youths to produce the garments, or they find markets for their finished products elsewhere. Chikena
The argument has been made that the restriction of textile imports from access to forex will impact negatively on our fashion designers who may not be able to get very high grade textiles for their garments which are preferred by Nigerian elites. It has also been said that the fashion designers may not be able to sell much of their products in the blooming international fashion market. The Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), which one would have expected to be in the vanguard of the promotion of local textile production is backing the continuing importation of textiles. It has argued that the exclusion of textiles from the forex market would negatively affect fashion designers and other professionals in the fashion industry such as the traders, and also put the N5 trillion investments in the industry at risk.
According to LCCI, local textile production cannot support the fashion industry in terms of quality and quantity, hence “the vibrant industry should not be sacrificed on the altar of textile industry regeneration.” I sincerely think the LCCI is missing the whole point of the CBN’s position. The objective of this restriction is not only the “regeneration of the textile industry”, it is ultimately about the need to boost local textiles production, conserve our forex and create jobs for our teeming youths. Textiles is one of the highest job generating industries and if we get our farmers to invest massively in cotton production and seriously support the production of textile materials, the country will be able to make a huge dent in its high unemployment figures.
But then, the Federal Government must seriously support the textile industry. Farmers who will grow the cotton must be supported on a scale that can produce the quantity of textiles that the country needs. The unending challenge of epileptic electricity supply must be addressed because textile production is a high energy dependent activity. Poor electricity supply has for ages been the bane of manufacturing in Nigeria. The government will therefore need to put its resources where its mouth is and ensure the adequate electricity supply required for the rapid industrialization of the country.
There have been so many initiatives in the past to support the textiles firms. The country, at a time, had the N100 Billion Textiles Intervention Fund but a combination of the “Nigerian Factor”, the nation’s electricity crisis and the unbridled dumping of textiles in the country cheated Nigeria of the expected gains of the initiative. Many of the expected beneficiary companies could not access the funds while those who did could not surmount the challenges of the energy crisis and the competition from the imported textiles.
If we must move away from our over-dependence on petroleum exports and boost job creation, massive support for the textile sector, which was once and can still return to its former position as the nation’s second largest employer of labour, is the way to go. Good enough, the government has promised to support this plan with a massive onslaught against textiles smuggling. There is also an allowance for the continued importation of cotton lint until the beginning of next year (2020).
The implication of this is that the support for cotton production in the country must be immediate, and massive, to ensure that by next year, there will be sufficient cotton lint to keep textile production going. Even if, for any reason, we must continue importing cotton lint for some time after January 2020, the production of the actual textiles must take place in the country. These steps should address the fears of LCCI. Low interest loans should also be made available to textile firms to expand their production
Luckily, a foreign firm recently signed an agreement for the establishment of a huge textile firm in Kano. There is also a plan for another such initiative, I believe, somewhere in Edo State. Other firms from which Nigerians have been importing textiles should follow suit and set up their fabric manufacturing plants in the country if they are to remain relevant in the Nigerian textiles industry, post 2020.