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28
Thu, Mar

Senate Proposes Five-year Ban On Foreign Textile Materials To Grow Local Textiles

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The Senate has on Tuesday appealed to the Federal Government to ban the importation of textiles material for a period of next five years to allow the local textile to grow.

This followed the debate on a motion sponsored by Senator Kabir Barkiya (APC Kastina central) during the Senate plenary on Tuesday under “Urgent need to revamp the Nations comatose textile”.

 

The red chamber also called on the federal government to make provision of the basic infrastructural facilities that will facilitate the ease of production by the company such as power supply and good road network.

 

The upper house also urged the federal government to make provision of incentives to the company such as soft loan and access to other credit facilities through the Bank of Industry.

 

Barkiya argued that the textile industry was one of the major employers of labour and has significantly grown the Nigerian Economy in the 60s and 70s.

 

In his statement, “The textile industry recorded an annual growth of 67 per cent and as of 1991, employed above 25 per cent of the workers in the manufacturing sector. The textile industry was then the highest employer of labour apart from the civil service.”

 

He expressed concerned that the industry such as the Kaduna textile, the Aba textile and Kano textile has continued to shrink in the last two decades returning their workers back to the labour market.

 

In his contribution, Senator Robert Boroffice (APC Ondo North) posited that the surge in the importation of textile material was a direct consequence of our textile folding up.

 

He revealed that with the recent border closure, our eyes are now open. He called on the federal government to extend the law, citing China for example who closed their border for 40years to give them the boost in their economy, the Senator said Nigerians can learn from that.

 

Meanwhile, the Senate president drew their attention that Nigeria recently signed a continental free trade agreement, saying there is consequence to violating such commitment.

 

He opined that Nigeria cannot just instantly stop trading with other nationals in a competitive market, we have to be on top our game, Senator Lawan added.

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