95% of textile market dominated by China— NTGTEA

The Nigeria Textile, Garment and Tailoring Employers Association (NTGTEA) says that 95 percent of the textile market is dominated by products from China.

This was stated by Hamma Kwajaffa, director-general of NTGTEA, who urged the government to revive moribund textile mills to enable the local manufacturing industry compete favourably with Chinese products.

Kwajaffa said few surviving textile firms were struggling and could not compete with China and India whose production costs in their home countries were much lower than Nigeria’s.

“Energy costs four cents per kilowatt in other African countries but 20 cents per kilowatt in Nigeria. So how can a struggling textile firm compete?” he asked.

Apart from African Textile Manufacturers (ATM) Limited, Angel Spinning and Dyeing Limited, and Spinners and Dyers Nigeria Limited, other textile mills are either dead or combining textile business with other businesses.

Nigeria was a hub of textile manufacturing in 1970s and 1980s with companies such as Asaba Textile Mills, Aba Textile Mills, Kaduna Textile Mills, Afprint Nigeria Plc and Enpee Industries, among others, now dead owing to unbridled smuggling of Asian textiles, high cost of energy, poor patronage, as well as lack of cotton to feed the mills.

“We can produce military uniforms. We have bed sheets, blankets, towels and handkerchiefs. We can make good products, but there is a need for incentives here. In China, for example, you get incentives for doing export,” he said.

ODINAKA ANUDU