The Bank of Industry (BoI) has blamed collapse of the textiles companies on failure of state governments to implement the recommendations of the Cotton and Textile Garment (CTG) scheme.
BoI’s Executive Director, Small and Medium Enterprises (MEs), Waheed Olagunju, also blamed failure to implement the recommendation on how to increase cotton production, address smuggling and lack of lubricants for the woes of the industry.
Olagunju, who spoke in Kaduna during the regional vocational skills competition organised by the bank in partnership with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), said the bank has disbursed 60per cent of the N100billion facility to industries in the sector.
He said: “CTG scheme, if you remember was launched around 2010 and it was a N100billion facility. We disbursed about 60per cent of the facility to industries in that sector in Nigeria before it was converted to equity.
“You will agree with me that funding is only one of the factors of production, there are other things that go with running successful an industrial enterprise, the bank made money available but other recommendations were not implemented.
“ If other recommendations were implemented along side the funding, it would have led to the revival of that sector. Other challenges that need to be looked into includes smuggling, lubricants and others.”
He pointed out that if the industries have not done well, it is because the recommendations were not implemented.
He added: “The real sector of the Nigerian economy is experiencing shortages in terms of the required manpower that they need to operate their industries.
“This programme is to address two things, there is huge unemployment in the country particularly among the youths. And analysis of the situation shows that most of them are not employable; most of them have certificates but don’t have skills required by the real sector of the economy. So we are trying to ensure that we beef up the quality of the output of our vocational schools.
“Prior to the oil boom, vocational schools operated very well, they provided manpower for the economy, but, for the last 20-40 years, we have seen a decline in these area. So the BoI as a development financial institution, we should align ourselves, key our strategies into the nation’s development priority and aspirations and so we are helping in that regard of tackling youth unemployment.
“When it comes to factories and industrial complex, you will realise that a lot of skilled manpower are imported from countries like Phillippine and Indonesia. For example, the factory put up by Dangote Group recently, he told us that he had to import more than 3,000 Indonesian and Philippinos welders who work in that factory. These are jobs that would have been taken up by Nigerians.”
On the vocational skills competition, Olagunju said: “Five out of the seven vocational skills, are construction related because we need huge manpower to bridge the 17million housing deficit we have in Nigeria. A lot of industries are coming up and a lot of manufacturing concerns and industrial companies are being constructed all over the country, we need a lot of manpower.
“The remaining two which are not construction related, that is fashion and automotive are equally important because, there is huge demand in these areas too. So, that is why we carefully selected these sectors, because we are high stakeholders in the Nigerian economy, if the economy does well, we will benefit from it.” The Nation
