The Senate on Tuesday called for a total ban on the importation of textile products into Nigeria as part of efforts to revive the country’s struggling textile industry and create jobs.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion sponsored by Senator Sunday Katung and co-sponsored by several lawmakers, including Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, Adams Oshiomhole, Mohammed Monguno, Ibrahim Khalid and Mustapha Khabeeb.
Leading the debate, Katung lamented the decline of an industry that was once one of Nigeria’s largest employers of labour.
He recalled that the first large textile manufacturing mill in Nigeria was established in Kaduna in 1957, while government policies in the 1960s and 1970s helped the sector flourish.
According to him, Nigeria had about 167 textile mills in the late 1970s and 1980s, employing nearly 500,000 workers.
Katung noted that Kaduna earned the nickname “Textile City”
This post was originally published on this site.
