The spacious entrance area of the Kaduna Trade Fair Complex was crowded as traders displayed their wares to attract buyers. Assorted imported fabrics, mainly guinea brocade known as shadda and other plain fabrics for men, wrist watches, pen, shoes, etc, were among the items on display. I remarked to a friend, Hauwa, as we were about to enter the hall that the traders were part of the problem we were about to discuss. I then looked at the fabric most of us were wearing and since they were not locally made, I told her that perhaps we were also part of the problem and she laughed!

Last Saturday, the Kaduna-based Arewa Media Forum organised a seminar on an issue that has generated so much concern, but which the government, captains of industry and the labour unions have not been able to address effectively. The collapse of the textile industry in the Northern States and the effects of this on the economy of the region. The Arewa Media Forum AMF is a Non Governmental Organisation established by journalists, newspaper proprietors and stakeholders in journalism practice in Northern Nigeria. The NGO has been in policy fora and organising interviews with policy makers on various topics to enlighten the public.

Chairman of AMF, Malam Mohammed Haruna, and Managing Director of Kaduna-based Citizen Communications, welcomed participants to the event. He informed the audience that the choice of the topic, and the decision to organise the seminar was taken last year at one of our meetings where the forum discussed the neglect of agriculture, the poor industrial base, the closure of factories and the low capacity utilisation of existing ones in the northern states. In 1949, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Northern Nigeria had a vision for the industrialization of the region. He established the Kano Textile factory in Gwammaja, Kano and the Kaduna Textile Mill KTL to use the abundant cotton produced by farmers in the region. Kano became a textile marketing city and Kaduna also developed into a textile city as other factories and support services, such as the spinning and weaving industries blossomed. Marketers of Kaduna-made textile materials; mainly African prints atampa also carved a niche for themselves selling these products locally and exporting to neigbouring countries. Sadly in the past decade, we watched with concern as one textile factory after the other closed shop. The last factory that closed last year was the United Nigeria Textile UNTL which used to produce fine wax that was a good match for any imported brand. The closure of textile factories was not limited to Kaduna, but was repeated in Funtua, the headquarters of the cotton production belt, Kano the commercial centre of Northern States and Lagos the nation's business capital.

What were the causes of this closure? This was properly articulated by all the resource persons at the seminar. Senator Walid Jibrin, the Vice President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria MAN, in his paper titled "Reviving the Textile Industry in Nigeria" gave a historical overview of the development of the sector, its contributions to the economic development of the country, the problems being encountered and the way forward. Senator Walid identified the following as some of the factors responsible for the collapse of the textile industry. Inconsistency in government policies, lack of protection of nascent home industry due to globalisation and liberalisation policies, high interest rate, smuggling and dumping of cheap Chinese wax and African prints, power crisis and high cost of fuel which have led to sharp rise in cost of manufacturing.

He listed some of the contributions of the textile industry to the economy. They include being the second largest employer of labour after the government, about 2 billion naira derived by government as taxes and levies, providing source of livelihood to over 1,750,000 cotton growersetc.

In his presentation, Alhaji Saidu Dattijo Adahama, the Chairman of Adahama Textile and Garment Industry in Kano, underscored the need to revive the textile industry which has huge potentials. Given Nigeria's huge population, there are basic requirements of citizens for fabric which must be met. Some of these are provision of uniforms for pupils and students of various institutions from nursery, primary to secondary level, uniforms for professionals such as the military, paramilitary organisations, medical workers, industrial garments, corporate wear, under wear, t-shirts, baby dresses, beddings, sports wear, etc Alhaji Saidu, however, observed that neglect of the textile sector has rendered it vulnerable to smuggling. He made an interesting analysis which showed that Nigerian industrialists have not made investments that will ensure that local industry produce enough fabrics to meet the needs of our growing population. In such a situation, smuggling is used to fill the gap between demand and supply.

His research showed that even if all the textile factories in the country were working at full capacity, they would not be able to meet the needs of the citizens. Using Kano as an example, he calculated the fabric requirement as follows:

Kano has a population of 10 million and assuming that every member of a household will require three sets of clothing in a year and each set is 10 metres, the average annual requirement will be 30 metres per person. Thirty metres for 10 million people comes to 300 million metres. With a population of 140 million, Nigeria will need 4.4 billion metres of fabric. This makes smuggling attractive and profitable because the unmet need exists. He recommended that government private sector partnership should support the establishment of mega textile industries in Gombe and Funtua, the major cotton growing zones of the country. He also recommended that micro finance banks should also be established in major textiles markets nation wide. Garment production industries should be established alongside tailoring institutes in each of the nineteen northern states. The 24 commercial banks should also replicate the United States NEXIM banks in reviving collapsed economic sectors in Nigeria. Many of those who contributed to the discussions blamed the oil boom for the neglect of the agricultural and industrial sector and the country's over reliance on crude oil as the major source of revenue.

Several stakeholders, among them the President of MAN Alhaji Bashir Borodo, Comrade Wahid Umar, the NLC President, made significant contributions which space constraints will not allow me to include in this write up. In his contribution, Comrade Adam Oshiomhole, former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress and Governor of Edo State said about 28 000 workers, their dependants and suppliers were affected by the closure of textile factories. He lamented the lack of political will to combat smuggling and asks "if we can fight drug export because Americans tell us to do it, why can't we fight smuggling of fabrics because of the harm it does to our economy? The rule of law must be extended to smugglers" .Malam Issa Aremu, the Deputy President of NLC and National Secretary of the National Union of Textiles and Garment Workers reminded us that we should not be intimidated by China, but should rather emulate China in the way it has been able to expand its export market and the in roads it has made into the world market. He recalled that the Sardauna of Sokoto had foresight and refused to be intimidated by the progress made by more technologically developed countries. Rather, he invited them to be partners and co-invest with the government of Northern Nigeria. This, according to Malam Issa, laid the foundation of the industrialisation of the region.

At the Arewa Media Forum, our decision to organise a seminar on the state of the textile industry was discussed in October last year when the closure of UNTL was announced. Some of us had read the newspaper reports of the event. I was also privileged to read a special report on it in an internet circulated edition of Governance Watch, a publication produced by the Abuja-based Passion Consult, managed by a social analyst and labour expert Malam Salihu Lukman. I drew the attention of my colleagues to it. Titled "The Nation's Industrial Crisis: Any Hope for an End?" It undertook an analysis of the 43-year-old UNTL and its contributions to the economy and the effects of the closure on livelihood and government's revenue generation drive. Salihu observed that with total share volume of 894,724,027 valued at N2.53 each, turnover of N13.9billion and N14.4 billion in 2005 and 2004 respectively, corresponding profit after tax of N170.6 million and N194.7 million during the same period, the contribution of the industry made substantial contributions to the economy.

The company, in the press statement announcing the closure, said it 'could no longer bear the harsh economic condition prevailing in the country', stressing that it 'had suffered losses of over N1.3bn in the past two years. In 2006 alone, the company lost over N700m, and in the first quarter of this year, recorded N650m loss.' Apart from producing textile products (African prints and wax), it provided direct employment to at least 4,000 citizens, in addition to others providing services to workers, costumers and the company such as food sellers, etc. It also provided veritable source of revenue to the local, state and federal governments. Already, the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NTMA) argued that the industry, which used to be the second largest employer of labour after government has lost 577,000 workforce between 1992 and 2006.

Out of 170 companies, about 149 textiles were reported to have shut down.

Lukman's analysis then highlighted the major problems facing the industry which of course were the same as those mentioned by our resource persons during their presentations. They include the trade liberalisation policy of the Federal Government, which produced poor economic climate leading to higher cost of industrial production. Globalisation further worsened the crisis because of complete removal of all forms of trade restrictions leading to unrestrained imports of all kinds of products. The consequence is diminished market for locally manufactured products that today accounts for only 27% share of the local market. Globalisation also led to massive dumping, which for textiles alone, was estimated at about 200 containers per month or 200 million metres valued at US$20 million. In August 2002 the Federal Government announced temporary suspension of textile imports. Administrative lapses hindered enforcement and therefore weaken the impact of the measure.

Other opportunities that would have boosted industrial potentials, especially that of the Nigerian textile industry such as the US African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), introduced by the President Bill Clinton administration, aimed at expanding exports from Africa, did not receive the required priority by the Nigerian government. In spite of the reported increase in the volume of imports from the US to Nigeria, which rose from N62,838.6 billion in 1996 to N90,068 in 2001, the inability of the National Assembly to pass enabling act that would allow Nigerian products, particularly textiles to take advantage of AGOA and access the US market was a major impediment.

The complete collapse of social and physical infrastructure also compounded industrial problems in the country. For instance, electricity supply dropped to about 1,300 megawatts in 1998, resulting in very unstable power supply. This negatively affected industrial production with many manufacturing industries having to provide alternative sources of power, mainly generating plants with additional costs for fuel. This is further compounded by protracted fuel crisis and the high costs and shortage of LPFO, otherwise known as black oil. When all this is weighed against the alarming corruption in the power sector as revealed by the House of Representatives probe of the power sector, it becomes clear that corruption and bad governance are at the root of the country's economic crises at every level. The link must, therefore, always be made between corruption and economic management .Even the problem of smuggling is fueled by corruption since the country's Custom Service is grossly inefficient. Smugglers do deals and 'buy' exit time when the officials look the other way as smugglers move their goods into the country. We also heard stories of smugglers who have become barons who are above the law!!

NTMA estimated that about 60% of the 40 million metres of wax fabric imported into the country monthly found their way to Nigeria through smuggling.

As a citizen who spent a substantial part of his life in Kaduna within the labour movement, Lukman's analysis lamented that the closure of UNTL resulted in huge financial losses for governments at all levels. The particular case of UNTL is reported to have resulted in the loss of N50 million monthly for electricity, N30 million Value Added Tax and N60 million Custom duties. The state government is said to have lost about N30 million employee tax, in addition to not less than N10 million to Kaduna State Water Board.

Government has made attempts to respond to the crisis in the textile sector and in 2007, the federal government launched a N70 billion Naira Textile Development Fund to finance new investment in cotton and textile sectors. It was projected to generate N60 billion annually and create 200,000 jobs for youths. A Presidential Committee on the Revival of the Textile Industry to address the industry's decades of decline was set up and charged with the responsibility of commissioning a study on the state of the industry and to formulate a financing package for the revival of the Nigerian textile industry. NEXIM and the Project Managers (Osprey Investments Group Limited) were assigned the responsibility of implementing a package of financial and programme assistance to the cotton and textile industries to improve performance and competitiveness in the domestic and international markets.

The Textile Development Fund was designed to be on-lent to companies subject to approval of the beneficiary's business and financing plan as follows: N50 billion Textile Financing Facility of the Textile Development Fund will provide investment finance for companies that seek to refinance high cost debt, replace and upgrade textile production lines, renew stocks of spare parts and acquire new technology. This facility will also be available to part-finance the establishment of new businesses in the garment and finished textile products sectors. The N20 billion Cotton Financing Facility of the Textile Development Fund will provide fixed and working capital for the cotton production sector. Fixed capital will be needed to enable ginneries to upgrade gins, presses, transport and other equipment and to expand process capacity where required. Working capital will be required for seed cotton purchases but also to provide inputs and other support to farmers. What has happened to the N70 million Textile Development Fund? There have been reported conflicting claims about the situation. With the Yar'Adua administration, especially with its welcomed ambitious Vision 2020, these must be speedily address in order to rekindle hope for industrial development of the country. Salihu believes, and rightly too, that a situation where industries crumble, like a pack of cards, will be the major impediment to any national development agenda.

By Hajiya Bilkisu Yusuf