Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has expressed strong reservations on the recent call, by the Senate,  to ban textile fabric imports, arguing such proposed measure could impose substantial collateral costs on downstream industries, disrupt critical supply chains and endanger millions of jobs and livelihoods.

 

Rather than embark on such ban, The Centre, in a statement issued by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Muda Yusuf, called for competitiveness, rather than embark on such import restrictions.

 

It noted that while the objective of reviving the nation’s textile industry remains legitimate and commendable, an outright ban, as being proposed, is unlikely to achieve its intended objectives and could have significant adverse consequences for the Nigerian economy.

 

CPPE described the Senate’s proposal as reflecting a  narrow view of the textile industry’s challenges, while overlooking the extensive linkages within the nation’s textile, garment, fashion, furniture and creative economy value chains.

 

 

It argued that the nation’s  fashion, garment-making and tailoring industry is substantially larger than the textile manufacturing segment, and conservatively valued at about ₦10 trillion.

 

“The industry provides livelihoods for an estimated ten million Nigerians and is one of the country’s most vibrant creative economy sectors.

 

“Textile fabrics are critical intermediate inputs for this ecosystem. Restricting imports would disrupt production, increase costs, reduce consumer choice and threaten thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises engaged in fashion, tailoring and garment manufacturing,” it added.

 

The Centre further noted that the garment industry also generates substantial domestic value addition through design, tailoring, branding, embroidery, merchandising and retailing. In many cases, the local value added exceeds the value of the textile inputs.

 

It, therefore, expressed the strong belief that public policy should,  therefore, be geared towards protecting this broader value chain.

 

“Textile fabrics are equally important inputs for Nigeria’s rapidly growing furniture and interior design industry, where they are extensively used in upholstered furniture, office furniture, hotel furnishings and mattresses. The industry is valued at an estimated N7 trillion. A supply disruption would increase production costs and weaken the competitiveness of the sector,” CPPE stated.

 

The Centre argued that rather than attribute the woes of the industry to imports, government, it added, must address the longstanding structural constraints such as high energy costs, expensive credit, poor infrastructure, logistics bottlenecks, obsolete technology, smuggling, weak access to long -term finance and policy inconsistency.

 

It expressed the belief that an import ban proposition would only  address the symptom while leaving the underlying causes unresolved, adding that sustainable industry revival requires lower production costs, improved productivity and stronger enforcement of the existing tariff regime.