General Secretary National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Comrade Issa Aremu, addressing the media after the 31st National Education Conference of the union held at the Labour House, Abuja.
The National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), has said that the textile and garment sector will generate 2.5 million jobs, out of President Muhammadu Buhari’s envisioned 100 million jobs in a decade.
After its 31st national education conference in Abuja, the union commended President Buhari for changing the narrative of textile industry from that of closure to revival and recovery.
It also commended the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for its development financing initiatives on cotton seeds to farmers, restructured Bank of Industry (BoI) loans to the spinning and weaving mills and facilitating the historic signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the textile mills and uniformed services – the Army, Navy, Police, Road safety, Civil Defence, Customs, Immigration, National Youth Service Corps and others, for their uniforms to be produced locally.
The communique signed by NUTGTWN President, Comrade John Adaji and the General Secretary, Comrade Issa Aremu, said: “President Buhari had envisioned 100 million jobs in a decade. Textile and garment sector promises as many as 2.5 million direct jobs.”
It reaffirmed that the textile industry remains the key driver of sustainable jobs and development for most national economies of developing nations like Nigeria.
“Indeed, for Nigeria and Africa to meet the Sustainable Development Goal 2030, especially SDG 9 dealing with industry and innovation, African continent must innovate and industrialise. Africa must copy China’s industrialisation drive which has within 20 years moved over 250 million people out of poverty through manufacturing and industrialisation.
The union commended the Bank of Industry (BoI) under the leadership of Mr. Olukayode Pitan for sustainable financing to textile operators to aid recovery.
It stated that the implementation of the Cotton Tailoring and Garment (CTG) policy is taking place at the time most African countries including Nigeria had signed on to the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA).
The union called on the Federal Government to develop a comprehensive strategy to fully optimise the benefits of ACFTA with necessary safeguards in place to prevent and apprehend unfair trading practices such as smuggling and dumping.
It supported the current closure of Nigerian borders by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) as part of the strategies to combat smuggling while calling on the Nigeria’s Customs to effectively enforce the directive.
It further commended the directive by President Buhari for special fund by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Industrial Training Fund (ITF) for capacity building and training of workers in the cotton, textile and garment value chain against the background of the new CTG policy and signing of the ACFTA.
The union advised that the fund must be channelled through the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria.
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