Proposed textile import ban may hurt economy, threaten millions of jobs—CPPE

Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE) has cautioned against the Senate’s resolution seeking to ban the importation of textile fabrics.

CPPE’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Muda Yusuf, in a statement on Sunday in Lagos, warned that such a move could undermine key industries, threaten millions of jobs and fail to revive Nigeria’s struggling textile sector.

The Senate had urged the federal government to implement an import ban for an initial period of five years.

The motion, sponsored by Senator Sunday Katung, is to create a protected window for domestic cotton farmers and local textile mills to scale up production.

However, Mr Yusuf noted that while the objective of revitalising the textile industry was commendable, an outright import prohibition would likely create more economic challenges than it would solve.

He argued that the decline of the textile industry was driven mainly by structural constraints such as high energy costs, poor infrastructure, expensive credit and obsolete technology.

Other factors he listed as driving the decline of the sector included logistics bottlenecks, smuggling, and policy inconsistency, rather than import competition.

According to him, restricting textile imports will disrupt production across the country’s garment, fashion, tailoring, furniture and interior design industries, which depend heavily on imported fabrics as production inputs.

He said Nigeria’s fashion, garment-making, and tailoring industry, valued at about N10 trillion, supported an estimated 10 million livelihoods and represented one of the country’s most vibrant sectors of the creative economy.

According to him, the sector generates significant domestic value addition through design, tailoring, branding, embroidery, merchandising and retailing, often exceeding the value of the imported textile inputs.

“Restricting textile imports would increase production costs, reduce consumer choice and threaten thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises engaged in fashion, tailoring and garment manufacturing,” he said.

Mr Yusuf added that textile fabrics were also critical inputs for the furniture and interior design industry, valued at about N7 trillion, and warned that supply disruptions would weaken manufacturers’ competitiveness.

He further noted that imported textile fabrics already attracted a combined import duty and import adjustment tax of between 35 per cent and 45 per cent, yet the existing tariff protection had not restored the competitiveness of local textile manufacturers.

“The core problem lies in production economics rather than import penetration.

“An import ban addresses the symptom while leaving the underlying causes unresolved,” he said.

Mr Yusuf also maintained that local textile manufacturers currently lacked the capacity to meet the quantity, quality and diversity of fabrics required by the country’s fashion, garment, furniture and interior design industries.

He warned that an outright import ban could therefore create supply shortages and negatively affect downstream sectors that generated significantly more employment than textile manufacturing itself.

The CPPE boss advocated a comprehensive value-chain strategy to revive the textile industry.

He called for the restoration of a domestic cotton production through improved security, mechanisation, better seedlings, extension services and guaranteed off-take arrangements.

He also stressed the need for affordable long-term financing, access to modern technology, a reliable energy supply and a more competitive operating environment for manufacturers.

Among other recommendations, Yusuf urged the government to prioritise locally produced textiles and garments for uniforms used by the military, paramilitary agencies, schools and other public institutions.

He also recommended establishing a textile competitiveness fund, financed by textile-related import tax revenues, to support technology upgrades and industry modernisation.

Other measures proposed include strengthening border enforcement to curb smuggling and implementing reforms to reduce energy and financing costs while improving industrial infrastructure.

Mr Yusuf stressed that the sustainable revival of Nigeria’s textile industry would depend on improving competitiveness rather than imposing additional import restrictions.

He warned that a blanket import ban could encourage smuggling, reduce customs revenue and weaken a broader value chain that contributed substantially to employment and economic growth.