Senate Urged FG To Ban Importation Of Textile Materials For Five Years

The Senate on Tuesday has called on Federal Government to ban importation of textile materials for five years to revamp the comatose textile industry in Nigeria. The call was made after a consideration of motion titled “Urgent need to revamp the nation’s comatose Textile industry” sponsored by Senator Kabir Abdullahi Barkiya (APC, Katsina Central). The senate also, during the debate, appealed to the federal government to sustained border closure to a reasonable time to ensure value chain of cotton and garment productions in the country. Debating the motion, Senator Kabir Barkiya, blamed power as the major cause of decline of the textile industry which, according to him, had played significant role in the manufacturing sector of the Nigerian economy with a record of over 140 companies in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He said that government policies like increase in taxation, high cost of production, trade liberalisation that result in massive importation of textile materials had also negatively affected the production of local textile materials. “The textile industry is the highest employer of labour apart from the civil service,” he observed.