Retail clothing and footwear prices increase for straight 72 months

Average costs of buying cloth and footwear continue to accelerate for both urban and rural consumers rising by 107, 102 percent respectively since January, in a 72 months consistent increase from September 2011, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) consumer price index report showed February 20.

This is the longest streak increase for the items after it went on a similar run for 31 months between June 2009 to November 2011 before it falling only once in May 2010.

For February last month, the urban index showed the average retail prices is 247.6  increasing by 1.02 percent following a 1.01 percent rise in January at 245.7, while the rural index also rose slight by 1.06 percent and 1.02 percent.

Despite the Nigerian government’s effort to revive the textile and cotton industry, Nigeria has continued to depend largely on importation of the items to serve 170 million populations.

In a recent BusinessDay report, Hamma Kwajaffa, director general, Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (NTMA) revealed that Nigerians spend N1.29 trillion annually importing textiles and readymade clothing.

Figures also released on Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics showed Nigeria spent N140 billion importing various wearables including footwear.

“Nigeria’s manufacturing sector is still at its “teething stage unless we get our textile industry working, Nigerians will continue to pay more for the items,” Ademola Alabi a consumer analyst and consultant told BusinessDay.

“Our textile, cotton industry is ailing despite various interventions by the government since 2010, although there is an improvement, more needs to be done to help the industry gain strong footholds to sever the Nigeria population, if not Forex will continue to play a role,” he noted.

DAVID IBEMERE