Nigeria is aiming at accelerating a sustainable increase in the production and processing of cotton.The cotton sector aims at increasing production by 20 per cent in 2018 as farmers are encouraged by better returns due to increasing cotton prices and improved yields.

At one time Nigeria’s textile industry created over 8,00,000 jobs, representing 25 per cent of the total number of jobs in the manufacturing sector.

There were 175 textile mills in the country during its golden era (i.e. 1985 - 1991) out of which today all but 27 of them have gone under.

Key challenges affecting the sector are lack of cotton lint, smuggling and counterfeiting, inadequate infrastructure, limited access to power and funding.

Funds needed by manufacturers to recapitalise have been hampered by the high interest rates charged on loans by financial institutions. The 30 per cent interest rate charged in Nigeria by commercial banks would appear as exorbitant when compared, for example, with the six per cent charged in China on loans given to textile manufacturers.

Globally power supply accounts for about 15 per cent of the production cost in the textile industry. In Nigeria it is almost 45 per cent.

Production of cotton lint which accounts for 40 per cent of the raw materials required in the textile industry has remained a critical challenge.