Shandong Ruyi will invest in Nigeria’s cotton, textile and garment sector. The agreement involves cotton growing to ginning, spinning, textile manufacture and garment production. Shandong Ruyi is China’s largest textile manufacturer. Its investments will comprise aggregation and offtake of cotton from farmers for ginning, spinning and weaving and manufacturing at least 300 million meters of African print, which will meet 20 per cent of West Africa’s demand.

Chinese investors are increasingly seeking low cost, alternative textile value chains, as wages for textile workers continue to rise in China. Nigeria is among several African states wooing investors with a range of financial incentives, sweeteners and grants at newly developed industrial parks. The country is upgrading existing industrial parks to special economic zones across the six geo-political zones in the country. More industrial parks will be set up to aid more trade facilitation, integrate economies and inter-link various market chains and values.

The country is trying to attract necessary investments into cotton farming and textile manufacturing and so become a major producer and exporter of textiles in the world. The textile industry was one of the booming sub-sectors of the Nigerian economy. The dip in fortunes of the industry was due to the influx of cheap textiles and fabrics into the country from all over the world.