Govt, NEXIM Unfold New Plan To Revive Textile Industry  
 

By Saxone Akhaine

30th July 2008

No fewer than 793 farmers in Edo have received agricultural loans totalling N86 million in the last one year.

The loan is under a private sector scheme, Agricultural Rural Development Initiative (LARDI) and the Lift Above Poverty Organisation (LAPO), a Benin-based micro finance group.

The Programme Manager of LARDI, Mr. Andrew Udah, has said in Benin City that the initiative had gone beyond loans disbursement as it also covered extension services to the benefiting farmers.

He said that the mandate of LARDI, which started in 2007, was to address challenges that affected rural communities.

He said that such challenges included threat to food security, lack of extension services, both of which had increased poverty among the people.

Udah added that private intervention by LAPO became necessary because of the enormous constraints faced by rural farmers for returns on investments.

These constraints, he outlined, included lack of access to markets for good bargains for produce, inadequate and affordable financing arrangements as well as lack of storage facilities.

"Our goals at LARDI are to improve the quality of life of the rural dwellers through committed support for activities that will energise the rural economy,'' he said.

He said that apart from food crop cultivation, the programme had also encouraged poultry farmers to revive their declining practice due to high mortality of their birds in recent times.

"We render our clients and beneficiaries on-farm support, material support, training services as well as storage facilities as a way of boosting agricultural productivity in the country,'' he added.

The depression that hit the ailing textile companies across the country may soon ease, going by efforts being made by the Federal Government and Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank, to facilitate sector operators' access to the N70 billion textile revival fund.

Besides, arrangements have been concluded by NEXIM Bank, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, to start bringing into the country, improved cotton seedlings meant for modern technology in the textile industry.

A team of the officials of NEXIM Bank, led by the Managing Director, Alhaji Baba Yusuf Ahmed, met with the 19 northern governors on Thursday to brief them about efforts being made to revive textile companies.

Ahmed, who spoke with journalists in an interview at the weekend, pointed out that "the management of textile companies cannot complain that they cannot access the N70 billion revival fund because they are aware that we have met with the stakeholders, that is, the Cotton Producers Association, the Cotton Manufacturers Association, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Textile Manufacturers Association, and in some cases with the Textile Workers Union."

"We have met, and I made them to realise that this is not a Federal Government grant, but it is a loan being initiated by the Federal Government."

Stressing that the process of reviving the ailing textile industry has already commenced, the NEXIM Bank chief, however, disclosed that the bank "has also made, stakeholders to understand that we have to do all the necessary checks, we have to confirm what they have applied for, such that it is what they really need, and that it is also commercially viable."

"In so doing, it requires us going out to see some of the things they claimed to have. We go out to see these things physically. We have to first conduct credit appraisal that is already done. And you also want to believe that even if facilities have been approved, it is not just cash that we would give them. Some of them would require equipment."

Ahmed further remarked that "in that case they would intimate us where they are buying the equipment from, and letters of credits are also established."

"It is not just taking cash and disbursing to them directly. But, if those of them on ground are those that require capital or equipment importation, then we may have to disburse working capital to them and some other things for them to go and purchase raw materials."

However, the NEXIM Bank boss argued that the bank, in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture have concluded plans "to bring in improved cotton seedlings, the ones that is good for modern technology, which have to be brought in and distributed to cotton growers, and has to be grown in Nigeria."

Said Ahmed: " The Federal Government is aware that most of the textile industries have closed shop; one, because of poor equipment; two, because of the problem of smuggling of inferior fabrics from China and other places; and three, because of the type of cotton we have. That is why we are saying that such cotton would be replaced with those of improved seedlings. So that we can now get the kind of cotton that is required by modern technology."

According to him, "the textile companies we have are already dead and we don't want to rush, such that at the end of the day nothing is achieved."

Ahmed added that " the programme is on and the mere fact that we are holding meetings with them, just as we have gone round to see their state of condition shows that the project is on."

Besides, in a statement issued at the weekend by the Secretary General of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Alhaji Issa Aremu acknowledging the approval of the N70 billion revival Fund, said that "the process of disbursing the fund should not be hijacked by traders, importers and other parasitic ant-industry elements."

Aremu remarked: "This intervention fund has rekindled hope and lost confidence of investors. And we call on the Federal Government to insist that disbursement must be tied down to assurance of reopening of closed factories, recall of workers declared redundant, retooling of machines and payment of workers gratuities and benefits."

While urging the government to urgently revisit the UNIDO report of 2002 on the revival of textile industry, the Labour leader added that the report should form the basis for reviving the sector.

Source: Guardian

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