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LAGOS – Nigeria’s cotton, textile and garment (CTG) industry stakeholders have insisted that its revival presents one of Nigeria’s biggest opportunities to create jobs, stimulate industrial production, empower women and youth, strengthen rural economies and reduce pressure on foreign exchange.
Although the industry has suffered years of decline, for decades, it stood as one of the country’s largest employers outside the oil sector, supporting millions of livelihoods from farms to factories.
Industry players in separate interviews with Daily Independent argue that the opportunities within the cotton value chain extend far beyond textile manufacturing.
They say a fully revived sector would reconnect agriculture with industry, creating a chain of economic activities that begins on the farm and stretches through processing, manufacturing, logistics, retail and exports. Stakeholders agree that the greatest promise of a revived CTG sector lies in its capacity for employment.
According to Sadiq Ado, Secretary, Nigerian Cotton Farmers Cooperative Society Limited, the importance of the CTG industry extends beyond employment statistics.
He described the cotton, textile and garment sector as the highest employer of labour within Nigeria’s non-oil economy, with opportunities spanning cotton farms, ginneries, oil mills, spinning mills and garment manufacturing.
He added that the value chain also creates opportunities for merchandising at both local and international levels. According to him, restoring the industry would contribute significantly to addressing unemployment while also helping tackle broader challenges relating to food and security.
For Anibe Achimugu, National President of the National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN), revitalising the industry would benefit far more than factory owners.
He explained that cotton farmers would enjoy guaranteed markets and improved incomes, while dormant ginneries would return to operation, creating demand for technicians, engineers, machine operators and marketers.
Beyond the mills, according to him, garment manufacturers would have greater opportunities to expand production of uniforms, fashion apparel, workwear, school uniforms, military clothing and institutional supplies.
For Nigeria’s growing youth population, he said the industry offers diverse entrepreneurial opportunities in fashion design, digital printing, textile technology, branding, logistics, tailoring hubs, machine maintenance, packaging, e-commerce and export-oriented garment production.
Achimugu stressed that reviving the CTG industry should not be viewed merely as an industrial intervention. Rather, he described it as a comprehensive economic strategy capable of driving job creation, wealth generation, women’s empowerment, youth employment, rural development and foreign exchange savings.
The scale of those opportunities is echoed by Ado Sule, Director of Administration, National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN), who believes the industry’s potential is too vast to be fully quantified.
According to him, one of the strongest economic benefits of reviving the industry is the renewed confidence it would give cotton farmers.
He noted that once ginneries become operational, farmers would no longer struggle to find buyers for their produce, making cotton farming a more profitable enterprise.
Drawing from industry experience, he said the sector has the potential to empower as many as five million farmers if comprehensively revived.
He also disclosed that cotton cultivation has been successfully tested in 34 states and the Federal Capital Territory, with Bayelsa remaining the only state where trials have not been conducted because of its predominantly waterlogged terrain.
The implications, stakeholders say, are significant for rural communities where agriculture remains the primary source of livelihood.
A functional cotton value chain would not only improve farmers’ incomes but also stimulate rural economic activities through transportation, storage, processing and marketing.
The stakeholders also point to cotton’s versatility as one of its greatest strengths. Beyond textile production, cotton contributes to several manufacturing sectors.
Sule explained that cotton seeds can be processed into cooking oil, thereby contributing to food security.
After oil extraction, the remaining by-products are used in the production of animal feed, creating another layer of economic activity.
He further noted that raw cotton fibre has applications in furniture production, while cotton wool remains an essential product for hospitals and healthcare facilities.
The crop itself follows two distinct processing pathways, according to him, one involves traditional manual processing, enabling local women to produce fabrics, thereby creating opportunities for grassroots entrepreneurship and women’s economic empowerment.
The second route involves industrial processing, where seed cotton is purchased by ginneries and converted into cotton lint before being supplied to spinning and textile mills or exported. This industrial chain alone, stakeholders say, supports multiple industries and creates employment at every stage of production.
Additional industries linked to cotton include oil mills, thread manufacturing, needle production and garment manufacturing, illustrating the broad industrial ecosystem built around a single agricultural commodity. Another factor driving optimism among stakeholders is Nigeria’s large consumer market.
According to Sule, the market for finished textile products remains largely underserved despite the country’s sizeable population. Once fabrics are produced locally, he believes demand already exists to absorb the finished products.
This domestic market presents opportunities not only for large manufacturers but also for small and medium-scale garment producers, fashion entrepreneurs and retailers.
Expanded local production could also support institutional demand for school uniforms, workwear, military apparel and other specialised garments.
Samuel Oloruntoba, Secretary of the Cotton Ginners Association of Nigeria, welcomed the Senate’s renewed interest in the cotton, textile and garment sector, describing the intervention as a positive step for an industry that has long required attention.
According to him, efforts to revitalise the sector should begin with restoring Nigeria’s dormant textile mills so they can meet local demand.
He argued that reviving the country’s textile manufacturing capacity should take precedence, while also addressing the persistent challenge of textile smuggling, which he said has continued to undermine the few surviving mills.
Oloruntoba added that a holistic approach that simultaneously strengthens all segments of the cotton, textile and garment value chain would better position the industry to deliver the jobs, industrial growth and economic benefits stakeholders expect.
Taken together, stakeholders present the revival of Nigeria’s cotton value chain as more than an effort to restore struggling textile factories.
Instead, they see it as an opportunity to reconnect agriculture with manufacturing, stimulate rural development, create millions of jobs across multiple industries, empower women and young entrepreneurs, strengthen domestic production and support broader economic growth.
From cotton farms and ginneries to textile mills, garment factories and export markets, stakeholders believe the sector possesses the capacity to transform livelihoods while rebuilding one of Nigeria’s most important non-oil industries.
