Moribund industrial estates in four northern states may soon bounce back to life as the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has initiated efforts to revive the ginneries located in them.
The ginneries, which have gone comatose, were located in Gusau, Zamfara State, Funtua in Katsina State, Zaria in Kaduna State and Sokoto State. The four towns once served as the hub of the country’s textile industry.
The move to revive them was disclosed yesterday by the executive vice chairman/chief executive of NASENI, Prof. Mohammed Haruna.
Haruna said NASENI is prepared to partner with state governments, Small and Medium Scale entrepreneurs and other investors to revive the textile industry in the North.
He said the first step would be to revamp the collapsed ginneries in Gusua, Funtua, Zaria and Sokoto.
The NASENI boss said Nigerians have no basis to depend on garment making and tailoring experts from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Senegal, Mauritania and Cote D’Ivoire.
Prof Haruna said President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the nation will stop allowing foreigners to take over jobs which Nigerians should do.
Haruna spoke of the new initiative in Daura, Katsina State at the opening ceremony of skill development training and empowerment of 100 youths in modern methods of tailoring and fashion design.
He said, “Let me use this opportunity to declare that NASENI is willing to collaborate with SMEs, governments and individuals to revive the collapsed ginneries particularly of Gusau, Funtua, Zaria, Sokoto etc where I had previous experiences of been a service provider of factory and other facility maintenance in these industry’s glory years.
