The Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele, has said that no fewer than 130 textile companies have died in the country in recent times due to some constraints.

Emefiele made the statement during a courtesy call on Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State on Monday.

“Textile industries used to be the largest employers of labour in Nigeria after the public service but due to certain constraints, such as smuggling, dumping, lack of access to finance and issue bordering on power, over 130 textile companies have so far perished,” he said.

Emefiele said besides that, the ginners, spinners, and about one million farmers who were planting cotton as their source of livelihood also lost their jobs.

“And today we are complaining about insecurity and kidnapping, the reasons for these is joblessness and hopelessness, so, we need to do something about it.

“We must revitalise the textile industry to be the largest employer of labour, we feel that we will set the stage rolling, we must come to Katsina State which is the largest producer of cotton to begin a process,” he said.

According to him, CBN has held a lot of meetings with the farmers and other people along the value chain on how to achieve success.

He also urged Nigerians to stop smuggling and dumping of cotton and textile materials in order to realise the set goal.

In his remarks, Masari said that agriculture was the next sector that the state government accorded priority after education.

He said that reviving the textile industry was the biggest and quickest way of solving unemployment in the country and commended the CBN for its efforts in that direction.

Masari however, urged the CBN to review procedures for accessing loan facilities by the farmers. (NAN)

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