Industry collapse in Nigeria “imminent”
27/10/2008
The Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA) has complained to the federal government that the industry in the African country has been decimated by cheap imports from Asia, many of which infringe intellectual property laws.
The organisation’s executive Secretary, Paul Olarewaju, said public markets in some of Nigeria’s major cities, including Kano, Ibadan, Onitsha and Lagos, are flooded with textiles and garments that have been smuggled across the nation’s land borders, particularly the border with Niger. He said these products now command a market share of more than 80%.
He commented: “The situation in the Nigerian textile Industry is alarming. Unless urgent steps are taken by the government, a total collapse is imminent. The most serious problem afflicting the industry is the unabated influx of counterfeit textiles.”
Mr Olarewaju went on to point out that the textile sector is a strategic industry for Nigeria, which wants to diversify its economy rather than rely as heavily on oil as it does. He said it had employed 200,000 people in Nigeria in 1985, but that this number had now fallen to only 24,000. Nevertheless, he claimed that Nigeria’s textile industry is still the second-biggest in Africa, after Egypt's.
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