Disturbed by the alarming rate of youth joblessness, stakeholders in the textiles industry have called for the resuscitation of moribund textiles industries across the country.
The stakeholders reasoned that the revival of the moribund textiles industries, especially in the northern Nigeria will provide thousands of direct and indirect jobs for the teeming unemployed youths .
They made passionate appeal to Nigerian governors , especially those of the states where cotton are being grown, to revive the old textiles industries and establish new ones.
They sited the example of Kwara State where the governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq has established a Garment industries in Ilorin, the state capital.
Speaking with LEADERSHIP on the sidelines of the 36th annual national education conference of the
National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) in conjunction with the Nigerian Textile Garment and Tailoring Employers Association (NTGTEA), the president of NUTGTWN, Comrade Peters Godonu, urged the state governors to establish textiles/ garment industries to create employment opportunities for the youths.
Godonu who said that his union is committed to industrial development in the country, commended Governor AbdulRazaq for establishing a multi-million naira Kwara Garment Factory in Ilorin.
He called on other governors, particularly those of the cotton producing states to emulate the Kwara State governor by promoting value-added manufacturing, “even on the public private partnership basis as a strategy for job creation and wealth generation”.
The director general of the Michael Imoudu National Institute For Labour Studies (MINILS), Comrade Issa Aremu, who was also a former general secretary of the textiles union, said reviving the textiles industry will help greatly in engaging the youths in productive ventures and reduce the challenges of insecurity across the country.
He charged the government to protect the existing textile factories and bring old factories back to operations to ensure job creation and poverty eradication.
For his part, the chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress in Kwara State, Comrade Murtala Olayinka, hailed the establishment of Kwara Garment Factory.
He noted that the factory when become fully operational will provide thousands of direct and indirect jobs opportunities for the youth in the state.
Olayinka expressed delight that the factory had already engaged some workers and has commenced operation.
He appealed to the governors of the 19 northern states to take advantage of the cotton plantation in the region by establishing textiles industries.
