The Senate’s recent call for a total ban on the importation of textile materials into Nigeria has raised an issue that has been on the front burner in the quest to grow the Nigerian economy. This quest is particularly significant in this era of globalisation and intense competition among many nations for economic survival. Indeed, the Senate’s call can be considered yet another effort to boost local production and create employment opportunities for the country’s teeming population of unemployed youths. Nigeria’s textile industry is currently in a sorry state. This is an industry which used to be investors’ delight in the 1960s, when businessmen, mainly from Asian countries, found it attractive enough to commit their capital to it, especially given that Nigeria is a large market for textiles.

This is the same industry that used to employ a myriad of skills and cadres of staff ranging from the very low, semi and highly skilled, which led to an immense boom in the national economy, particularly the economies of cities such as Kaduna, Asaba, Aba, Ikeja, among others, where textile production prevailed. In the sixties and years later, these cities were centres of excellence of some sort with many people trooping in from the hinterland, to eke out a living for themselves, through small and medium-sized industries that sprang up, by forward or backward linkages with these textile firms, with tremendous positive effects on general commerce, increased tempo in economic activities and enhanced living standards generally.

Workers in such industries, including the current Senator representing Edo North in the Senate and former President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, have reminiscences of such situations that laid the foundation for vibrant labour unionism in the country, with persons like Mr Oshiomhole cutting their teeth in trade unionism and thereby having a rewarding career that propelled them to greater heights. Those were the days of yore. The story is now very different. Hence, it was no surprise at the enthusiasm expressed by the Senate, of which Oshiomhole is presently a member, to revive the textile industry and thus enhance job creation, as one of the key economic revival agendas of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, as the first term in office of the administration winds up in May 2027.

In presenting the motion on the “Urgent Need to Revive the Textile Industries in Nigeria,” on the floor of the Senate, Senator Katung Marshall who had sponsored the motion, co-sponsored by nine other senators during plenary, had argued that lifting the ban on textile importation in 2010 worsened the sorry state of the textile industry with almost 80 per cent of textiles in Nigeria currently imported from China, Indonesia, Taiwan and other countries. Along this line, the call was made for the entrenchment of favourable government policies, including restrictions on textile imports as was the case in the 1960s and 1970s which had invariably attracted investors and helped the industry expand significantly.

Accordingly, the motion advocates for increased funding for the Bank of Industry to support the revival of moribund textile factories, as well as calling for the expansion of cotton cultivation to strengthen the industry’s value chain. In addition, it was considered appropriate to urge the Federal Government, the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, and the Ministry of Agriculture to take urgent steps to resuscitate textile industries across the country.

These are sweet words that would be acceptable to any stakeholder in the progress of the Nigerian economy, but the fact remains that the Legislative arm of government appears to have just woken up from a slumber in addressing one of the core issues relating to the revitalisation of the Nigerian economy. The question is whether the approach being prescribed by the Senate is doable in this era of globalisation, with trade restrictions not fashionable, with calls for protectionism being discouraged by agents of free trade, and with global institutions such as the World Trade Organisation at the forefront to ensure the free flow of goods and services globally.

The core issue which the Senate resolution did not address is that of the business climate of the Nigerian economy. How has the country been performing in relation to the ease of doing business? Aside from the textile industry, how has the industrial sector been performing generally? The known fact is that the operating environment for manufacturing in Nigeria is not conducive presently. There are inhibiting factors such as energy challenges, very poor infrastructure, insecurity and unfavourable foreign exchange policies that make it very difficult for manufacturing firms to procure foreign exchange for imported inputs. Until these local challenges confronting the production or manufacturing sector are addressed, the quest by the Senate to revive the textile industry will just remain a pipe dream.

Since the days of the Structural Adjustment Programme, which commenced in 1986, Nigeria has gone through a series of economic policy frameworks that have had negative effects on its competitive relations with the rest of the world, such that production capacities for various sectors, such as textile manufacturing, have been lost, leading to the setting in of de-industrialisation in the country. Nigerian firms do not currently have the necessary comparative advantage to produce many exportable commodities, even in producing for the local market.

With adjustments in the exchange rates, among other changes in the macroeconomy, which are different from what was obtained in the days of the textile industry boom, imported textile products have become much cheaper than those produced locally, thus making local industries largely unprofitable in production and thus very difficult to sustain the existence of these firms.

To change this narrative, much work would need to be done in combination with good policy articulation and thus bring a return to the good old days of the textile industry boom in Nigeria. The country must come up with a functional commercial and industrial policy to be able to address the issue of the reversal of de-industrialisation in Nigeria. The operating environment must be made conducive for manufacturing. A curious mix of good policy formulation, tariff measures, availability of electricity power, restoration of security, border control, exchange rate management and good industrial incentives would have to be deployed to achieve this great dream. The Senate may deserve some commendation in passing this resolution, but it needs to be fine-tuned to bring in issues of the local environment, as well as the case of effective implementation.