How Nigeria's textile industry lost its mojo

By Abdulwasiu Hassan

Here's a quick quiz: What's the connection between Nigerian textiles and the West African nation's emergence as a footballing powerhouse?

Fans of the sport with an eye for trivia might recall that the Super Eagles' top goal scorer of all time, the late Rashidi Yekini, started his career at United Nigeria Textiles Ltd (UNTL) FC in the northern city of Kaduna in 1982.

This was also the period when many textile companies sponsored local football clubs, contributing to the sport's growth in a country that always had a large pool of talent but seldom the resources to promote it.

Ironically, the decline of Nigeria's once-thriving textile sector coincided with the Super Eagles soaring in global competition, including winning the African Cup of Nations in 1994 and an Olympic gold medal in 1996.

In that very decade, textile companies in the country faced an existential threat, collapsing one after the other.

A study points out that between 1994 and 2005, about 64% of Nigeria's registered textile companies perished, dragging the number down from 125 to 45 in just eleven years.

By 2022, there were less than 20 textile companies in business. In 1985, there used to be 175 such firms with healthy balance sheets and thousands of employees on their rolls.

"Employment-wise, the number of jobs created by the industry nosedived from 137,000 in 1996 to 24,000 in 2008. As of 2022, there were fewer than 20,000 jobs in the industry,” says Folorunsho Daniyan, president of the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers' Association (NTMA).

Manifold reasons for the collapse

Hamma Kwajaffa, director general of the NTMA, traces the collapse of Nigeria's textile sector to the fall of the naira in the 1980s. Textile manufacturers that had foreign loans to repay bore the brunt.

"Repayment of loans increasingly became a problem because of upward revisions in foreign exchange rates," he tells TRT Afrika.

"From N3 to the US dollar, the exchange rate rose to N30 by 1985. Conditions became tough for survival."

The currency problem was compounded by local manufacturers failing to compete with the cheaper, foreign-made fabrics that started making their way into the country.

"A liberalised, free-market economy resulted in dumping and even smuggling of cheaper goods into Nigeria, well below the cost price of domestic textile products. This was the trigger for a gradual drop that led to a total collapse," says Kwajaffa.

But Abubakar Musa Bunza, a lecturer in the department of polymer and textile engineering at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, sees the problem from a broader perspective.

He attributes the collapse of the industry to factors like lack of sustainable and affordable electricity, corruption, and conflicts between labour unions and employers.

Bunza believes the local industry also suffered for want of quality raw materials, the absence of an official agency to monitor the sector, and successive governments' alleged inability to tackle these problems.

Failed revival initiatives

The industry has been in a free fall for quite some time despite periodic governmental interventions.

In recent years, former President Goodluck Jonathan's government gave out loans totalling N60 billion for the textile sector's revival. The erstwhile Muhammadu Buhari administration, too, created a N294 billion fund, but it barely made a difference.

Vice President Kashim Shettima said recently that the current Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration was collaborating with the International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) to revive the sector and create 1.4 million jobs annually.

"The Tinubu administration will make conscious efforts to ensure the country harnesses opportunities in the cotton value chain, including ensuring that Nigeria regains its ICAC membership," he said.

While Shettima didn't go into details about the source of funds for this revival plan, trade and investment minister Doris Uzoka-Anite said Nigeria had secured a $3.5-billion investment for the sector.

Call for a new approach

Not everyone is impressed by the federal government's pronouncements, given the history of similar initiatives.

"Until the quagmire of problems isn't tackled, any intervention is likely going to fail," Bunza tells TRT Afrika.

"The required solutions include cheap and sustainable electricity, a balanced import-export policy that will favour our textile manufacturers, and engaging academia for research."

The university lecturer also recommends the creation of a textile research council.

NTMA director general Kwajaffa believes Nigeria needs to take cues from other emerging economies whose textile industries are working.

Effect of devalued currency

Since the floating of the Nigerian naira in 2023, the currency has lost more than half its value –going from N700 to a dollar to N1,600.

"If we devalue the naira, we shall just become a consumer nation. It will make us uncompetitive, and we won't be able to export," Kwajaffa tells TRT Afrika.

Bunza points out that currency devaluation impacts negatively on the import of raw materials and equipment.

Hajia Aisha Mohammed, who runs a store in Abuja, says demand for textiles has plummeted because of the high prices of imported fabrics.

Fabrics that used to be affordable, are now ''a luxury," she tells TRT Afrika.

Some analysts reckon the local textile industry needs to shift the goalposts, explore the market for fabrics other than African prints, and step out of Nigeria.

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