The Governor of Kano State, Alhaji Abba Kabir Yusuf, has announced plans to create 63,360 jobs for youths in the garment industry annually, starting from 2025.
Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, Director General of Media and Publicity, Kano Government House, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.
The job creation initiative is expected to cut across the state’s 44 local government areas.
Significant Step – Yusuf
In the statement issued by the governor’s spokesperson, Yusuf revealed this development while officially reopening the garment industry cluster in Kura Local Government Area of the state.
- The governor highlighted that the reopening of the garment clusters—originally established under Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso’s administration between 2011 and 2015—signals “a significant step towards fulfilling his campaign promises.”
“What we are witnessing now is the fulfillment of a campaign promise. With this initiative, we aim to create at least 63,360 jobs annually in the garment industry. Beneficiaries will earn an average monthly income of seventy thousand naira (₦70,000),” the governor stated.
- Governor Yusuf also warned unpatriotic individuals involved in the theft of machines to desist from stealing equipment deployed to the clusters in certain local government areas.
- He emphasized that such actions would not be tolerated.
On his part, Professor Murtala Sabo Sagagi of Dangote Business School described the development as a move that would revitalize the garment project in the state.
The professor explained that such a scheme would significantly boost youth empowerment and economic development in the state.
What You Should Know
Amid the governor’s plans, Nigeria’s textile industry continues to struggle despite the country’s huge market potential for cotton production.
- The garment and textile industries are interwoven, as textiles are the raw materials from which garments are made.
- In the 1970s, Nigeria was an industrial hub for textile production, boasting about 180 textile mills and employing more than one million Nigerians. Among these were United Nigerian Textile Limited, Aswani Textile, Afprint, Asaba Textile Mills, and Edo Textile Mills, among others.
- However, by the 1990s, these once-prosperous companies disappeared, facing obstacles such as rampant smuggling, unchecked importation, erratic power supply, unpredictable government policies, and growing insecurity, which rendered them uncompetitive.
- The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) shows that textiles contributed a negative 1.75% to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2024, making it one of the underperforming industries in Nigeria.
Interestingly, the manufacturing sector, which also includes the textile industry, contributed a positive 1.49% to real GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024.
Accordingly, the manufacturing sector is one of the best-performing non-oil sectors contributing to Nigeria’s GDP in the first quarter. Other sectors include telecommunications, agriculture, trade, and the burgeoning real estate sector.
