25th April, 2018
Dr Frank Jacobs, President, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) said discussion was ongoing with the Federal Government to revatilise moribund textile factories in the country.
Jacobs disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Lagos.
He said as part of the discussion, the association proposed the establishment of an Anti- Smuggling Task Force to prevent or reduce smuggling significantly and to enable many textile factories return to production.
Jacobs said smuggling was the key reason why many textile factories shut down their operations in the first place.
“You should go to Kano and Kaduna and see how many of these factories are closed down.
“These are factories that before now engaged a large capacity of manpower in their production but are now out of operations due to smuggling among other things.
“Most of the fabrics produced here are got by unscrupulous Nigerians who take same samples to places like China to reproduce them.
‘’They label them Made-in-Nigeria goods and then smuggle them back into the country.
“There was a time customs seized about N400 billion worth of goods in Kano and prosecuted some persons but that has not hindered them.
‘’This is why we are proposing the Anti-Smuggling Task Force,” he said.
Frank said though the Federal Government released about N50 billion to some of the manufacturers in the industry some years ago, the money was like a drop in the ocean.
He, however, noted that many of the manufacturers were in debts as at that time.
“With the ongoing discussions, respite is coming for textile factories which have for several reasons become moribund as this particular administration is very concerned about them.”