Expert urges FG to curtail smuggling, encourage cotton production to rebound textile sector

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By KAFTANPOST, ABUJA


Lagos, May 8, 2019 A financial expert, Mr Godwin Anono, has called on the Federal Government to curtail smuggling and encourage cotton production to rebound the textile sector.


Anono, who is an auditor of a Lagos textile company, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday.


Anono was reacting to a statement by the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, that no fewer than 130 textile industries had folded up in about two decades due to production constraints.


Emefiele made the statement when he visited Alhaji Aminu Masari, the Governor of Kastina State, on Monday.


He said the textile sector used to be one of the largest employers of labour after the public service in Nigeria but due to constraints such as smuggling, dumping, lack of access to finance and issues relating to power, about 130 of the firms had folded up.


Anono said that the government could put more efforts in covert operations in villages to reduce smuggling of imported textiles.


Anono, who is also President of Standard Shareholders Association of Nigeria, said the contract for deployment of drones should be hastened to put an end to smuggling.


He said that more locals should be engaged to put an end to the insecurities plaguing the communities where cotton was grown.


According to him, it is unfortunate that most of the states in the north eastern part of the country where cotton plantations are situated has been destroyed by insurgency with its attendant consequences on the economy.


He added that the precarious condition had reduced cotton output, created unemployment and poverty among the people.


He said he hoped that the apex bank programme on agriculture, which cotton was part of, would revive the sector because the sector had the capacity to improve the nation’s foreign earnings, if well harnessed.


Onono reiterated that the inconsistency in energy supply was one of the biggest challenges responsible for the decline of the sector above others because a sizable percentage of running cost was being expended on buying diesel.


He said that the unending challenge was mostly responsible for the stagnation and decline of the textile sector.

























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