Ten more textile firms close, says NTMA

The efforts of government to stop smuggling and dumping of goods have not yielded much results as another 10 more textiles companies have joined more than 30 other textile companies closed down earlier.

The executive director of the Nigerian Textiles Manufacturers Association (NTMA), Mr. Jaiyeola Olanrewaju, told the News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) in Lagos that shortage of cotton, following the export of cotton by farmers, had worsened the situation.

He said the government had given cotton farmers some incentives to make them earn more from exports rather selling to local consumers and textile manufacturers. Another problem confronting the textile manufacturers, he said, was the scarcity of black oil used by the manufacturers to power their boilers during the production of the textiles.

"We also understand the government is exporting it and thy would rather prefer to export and earn more money than to sell to local producers," Olanrewaju said.

On smuggling and dumping of textile products, he said the smugglers were not paying duties, if the products were brought in legally they would pay as much as 75 per cent duty.

"And local producers are groaning under the weight of infrastructure deficiency which add to the cost of doing business, making us very un-competitive," he said.

In the 1980s the number of textile companies was 175 and it dropped to 125 by the 1990s and within the last years 50 per cent of the number closed down and out of this number about 20 per cent were in distress.