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Friday, July 12 2019 01:08PM / CBN
Being Remarks By CBN Governor At The Meeting With Service Chiefs
Towards Reviving The Textile Industry Through Enforcement Of Executive Order
003 In Support of Local Content In Procurement By MDAs
1.(Protocols)
2.I am most delighted to welcome you all to the Central Bank of
Nigeria for this epoch making meeting on Reviving the Nigerian Textile Industry
through enforcement of Executive Order 003 on Support of Local Content in
Procurement By MDAs.
3.First and foremost, permit me to commence this address by
expressing our profound gratitude to all of you here for honouring our
invitation despite your very busy schedules to attend this meeting. This is a
strong indication of your commitment to 3 collaborate with us towards driving
the economic policies of President Muhammadu Buhari.
4.Distinguished Service Chiefs, Chief Executives of Uniformed
Services, in pursuance of the current administration’s drive towards economic
diversification and creating jobs for our teeming population with emphasis on
agricultural revolution, the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) sector has been
identified as critical.
5.This is because the Nigerian CTG sector holds huge potentials.
Specifically, the sector has the capacity to transform Nigeria’s rural economy
and revive the textile and garment industries by creating over 2 million jobs,
improve internal revenue across three tiers of government, reduce $4.0billion
import bill incurred annually on textile and apparel, safeguard and earn foreign
4 exchange and ultimately accelerate industrial development by making Nigeria a
global player in the textile and apparel sectors.
6.This event therefore symbolizes our commitment to attain
self-sufficiency in cotton production with a view to serving the Textile and
Garment segments of the value chain with quality inputs as we target zero
importation by the year 2020.
7.I am pleased to inform you that I have been holding meetings
with the Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) Sector stakeholders toward reviving
Nigeria’s textile sector. We analysed the huge potentials that exist in the
sector, identified the challenges militating against the sector’s contribution
to Nigeria’s growth and development and presented quick wins for reviving the
sector.
8.The CTG sector is however faced with some systemic challenges
which has hampered and diminished its role as the leading employer of labour
thereby preventing its contribution to Nigeria’s GDP.#
9.In the 1970’s and early 1980’s, Nigeria was home to Africa’s
largest textile industry, with over 180 textile mills in operations, which
employed close to over 450,000 people and contributing over 25% of the
workforce in the manufacturing sector. Today, most of the factories have all
stopped operations, as only 25 textile factories are operating today at below
20 percent of their production capacities, and the workforce in Nigeria’s
textile industry stands at less than 20,000 people.
10. Distinguished Service Chiefs, Chief Executives of Uniformed
Services, gathered here 6 today are worthy Nigerians that have what it takes to
change the narrative and rewrite the history of Nigeria’s struggling CTG
Sector. Crucial to this resolve is the call for patriotism and the need to
support local manufacturers of textile through patronage by MDAs as entrenched
in Executive Order 003. Mr President has directed full compliance with this
Order as it will help in addressing the pressure on our foreign reserves
through demands for forex for the importation of textile and clothing materials.
Our interactions with Stakeholders revealed that MDAs have not made any
significant order for uniforms or clothing materials from our Nigerian textile
manufacturers and garment companies and the Governments’ efforts at
resuscitating the textile industry will not be actualized if they are not
supported through local patronage among other incentives.
11. As a first step, we flagged-off the 2019 Wet Season Cotton
Input Distribution to 150,000 farmers in Katsina, Katsina State on May 6th ,
2019 under the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme. These are cultivating over 180,000
hectares of cotton that will feed our ginneries and be used in the production
of high quality textile for use by the armed forces and other uniformed service
organizations. Production is also ongoing across 23 States of Nigeria with more
to come onboard in the next planting season. We have also put in place
necessary mechanisms to ensure use of high yielding varieties that will produce
top quality fabrics and those that can compete in the international market.
12. We have also observed that our textile factories are carrying
huge quantities of unsold 8 stock while our garment factories are idle due to
lack of local patronage. We are optimistic that with your support, this trend
can be reversed. We have the mandate of Mr President to ensure that all
uniformed services and theatre wears in hospitals and medical facilities be
sourced locally from the Nigerian CTG sector. Already the Bureau of Public
Procurement (BPP) has been notified to enforce compliance among MDAs.
13. Our model in achieving this presidential directive is to
facilitate long term contracts (5 years or more) with our textile and garment
factories to produce uniforms for our armed forces and uniform services using
local fabrics and textile materials.
14. We are not naive of the fact that the nature of your jobs will
warrant special quality and security around the production of your wares. My
team will work with your nominees toward ensuring 9 requisite quality and
security associated with your uniforms. Your nominees will also join our team
to inspect the various textiles and garment factories to ensure their readiness
to be engaged on long term contracts to forestall breaches. We shall work out
payment terms that fit budget releases for uniforms for various organisations.
15. You will agree with me that if this is actualized with your
help and cooperation, it will impact positively on the garment industry and the
Nigerian economy at large.
16. We shall at the end of this meeting go to the ground floor to
inspect the mini exhibition mounted by select textile companies and garment
factories. This I hope will enable you begin to take steps to actualize the
dream of this meeting.
17. Distinguished Service Chiefs and Chief Executives of other
Uniformed Services, I humbly seek your cooperation towards realization of this
mandate. We cannot continue to dwell on the neglect of past years, the best
time to correct those mistakes is now and every stakeholder must contribute
their quota to guarantee the realization of these national targets. Our future
is bright as a country but we must continue to take those little steps that
will take us to our destination.
18. I thank you all for being part of this meeting and I pray for
a healthy and lasting business relationships between our armed forces,
uniformed services and Nigerian textile and garment factories.
19. I thank you for your attention and God bless Nigeria.
GODWIN I. EMEFIELE, CON
Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria
11th July, 2019
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