India-Africa Summit To Unlock Textile Potential, Says Envoy

The High Commissioner of India to Nigeria, Abhishek Singh has said that Nigeria is central to the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) coming up in New Delhi, India on May 31, stressing that as Africa’s largest economy and a nation of immense potential, Nigeria embodies the entrepreneurial spirit of Africa.

The envoy told a news conference in Abuja on Thursday that the 4th edition of the summit is the apex institutional mechanism for India’s comprehensive engagement with Africa, but more importantly to help revive Nigeria’s ailing textile industry, fight insecurity, boost Nigeria’s economy and enhance its ICT.

He said the India-Africa Forum Summit provides a unique opportunity for Indian businesses and Nigerian enterprises to explore partnerships that can unlock new markets and create shared value.

The Indian envoy said “We are aware that the Nigerian Government has initiated a programme to revive its textile market to reduce dependency on imports. India can offer value chain integration by instead of only exporting finished fabrics, Indian firms can set up ginning, spinning, and processing units in Nigeria’s cotton belts like Katsina and Zamfara.

“Nigeria has a big domestic market of 220 million people but due to import restrictions to protect local mills, high logistics costs, competition from cheaper Asian suppliers and forex shortages in Nigeria, the Indian textile products have limited access to the Nigerian markets. Statistics show that Nigeria’s total textile export in 2024 was at US$ 25.69 million, of which India’s share is merely five per cent.

India can offer Technology skill transfer with regard to modern looms, digital printing, and dyeing technology. Indian machinery manufacturers can supply equipment with buy- back arrangements and training,” he added.

The envoy noted that Nigeria could be connected to India’s MSME textile clusters in Surat, Tiruppur, and Ludhiana directly with Nigerian distributors and fashion houses in Lagos and Kano through virtual conferences, adding that arrangement can be made for virtual meetings with Indian export promotion councils in Textile sector such as TEXPROCIL, HEPC, June, EPC among others.

In the context of capacity building, the envoy said the government of India under its flagship program ITEC has been offering every year 250 slots of training in various streams which include many courses related to the textile sector.

“In order to enhance bilateral trade mechanisms, we need to work on simplified customs procedures, better banking channels to mitigate forex issues and a Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) between the two countries. During the 01 st JTC Meeting, there was an ‘in-principle’ agreement for conducting a joint study for exploring the feasibility of PTA,” he added.