The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele has promised to only work with associations that have repaid at least 70% of their existing loans, in the development of the Cotton, textile, and garment sector.
The apex bank boss made the disclosure during the Cotton, Textile and Garment Sector stakeholders’ engagement geared towards resuscitating the sector. Emefiele started by commending the stakeholders for their unrelenting commitment and collective efforts channelled towards reviving the CTG sub-sector in Nigeria.
Speaking further, Emefiele said: ‘’ Textile industry in Nigeria today is capable of an average output of between 150,000MT and 300,000MT with a ginning capacity of 650,000MT at 80% capacity utilization.
‘’CBN is on a journey to resuscitate the CTG sector with a plan to increase cotton production, capacity of ginneries and textile companies in the country, attain self-sufficiency in cotton production and create jobs, while enhancing the skills of Nigerians across the value chain of cotton production.
‘’CBN will be working with associations that have repaid at least 70% of their existing loans to cultivate about 80,000 hectares of land with an average output of 120,000 Metric tonnes at 1.5 Metric tonnes per hectare.’’
Naijabusiness.com.ng understands that this recent initiative is aimed towards returning the textile industries back to its glory days, creating jobs, diversifying the Nigerian economy and achieving self-sufficiency in cotton production.
In October 2020, CBN disclosed that it had invested over N120 billion on 320,000 farmers across the CTG value chain in four years. By the virtue of this investment, 19 Ginneries resuscitated across the country and more are expected to join.
It is pertinent to note that the investment and deliberate efforts by the CBN to develop the CTG value chain is one out of too many developmental initiatives it had taken since the present regime, in a bid to cut down on importation and save hard-earned forex. Recall that a few days back, the apex bank had reiterated its commitment towards working with state governments in supporting smallholder farmers and processors across commodities such as cassava, palm oil and fisheries. The bank reiterated this during the launching of the Rivers Cassava Processing Company.
