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| Godwin Emefiele, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) |
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has approved about N19.2 billion to fund the establishment of nine ginneries across the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Godwin Emefiele, disclosed on Tuesday.
CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with some critical stakeholders of Cotton, Textile and Garment sub-sector in Abuja on Tuesday.
The MoU was signed between CBN and Nigeria Cotton Association of Nigeria, Ginners Association of Nigeria as well as Nigerian Textile and Garment Manufacturers Association.
Other groups who signed the MoU with the CBN included the Armed forces, Nigerian Police force, paramilitary institutions, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and some uniform organisations.
Mr Emefiele said the approval by the CBN was to enable them retool their processing plants and provide them with improved access to finance at single digit interest rate.
He said the step would help to sustain their operations and improve their production capacity.
“We (CBN) are improving the links between cotton farmers and ginneries, by ensuring that ginneries are able to off-take the high-quality cotton produced by these farmers. The same support will be extended to the textile and garment firms,” Mr Emefiele said.
“We have invested heavily in our local textile and garment factories to retool and produce assorted uniforms for our uniformed services that meet international standards,” he added.
Also, he said the CBN has constituted a Textile Revival Implementation Committee (TRIC), which includes the Federal Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development and Water Resources.
The committee also includes the ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, and the governments of Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Gombe and Zamfara States.
He said the committee was driving the initiative to achieve self-sufficiency in cotton production and textile materials within a span of three years.
The CBN governor said he held consultative meetings with state governments on ways to reduce the operational costs of running textile factories within their respective States.
Besides, he confirmed that the state governments had indicated their interest in providing captive power plants in industrial areas where textile manufacturers operate.
This he said is to enhance their productivity and reduce the operational cost of running their factories.
Through these initiatives, he said all the businesses along the cotton- textile value chain would come alive again thereby helping to improve the economy of states.
The ceremony was attended by the Governors of Kaduna, Cross River, Gombe states as well as the Katsina State Deputy Governor.
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