Femi Oyelola, Kaduna
This National President of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Comrade. John Adaji has said the Textile Industry alone if fully in operation can create millions of direct decent jobs thereby bridging the unemployment gap in Nigeria.
He asserted this in his remark at the opening ceremony of the 35th annual Nation Education Conference of the National Union with the themed, “The Future of Work in the Nigeria Textile and Garment Industry.”
Adaji stressed that the importance of the industry cannot be over-emphasized, as manufacturing, lies the key to real transformation and economic recovery.
He expressed dismay that, over the years, the capacity of the industry has diminished drastically coupled with large-scale job losses which has created a pool of unemployed Nigerians with corresponding high poverty levels and increase in crime rates.
“Today, the cotton, textile, and garment sub-sector of the economy, which used to be the second largest employer of labour after the public sector is on a steady decline due to company closures and massive loss of jobs. Massive and indiscriminate importation of textile products has become the order of the day.”
