Idakwo: Cotton Crisis Threatens FG’s Ambitious Textile Industry Revival
• Cotton shortage, institutional dispute pose risks as output crashes below 10,000 tonnes
James Emejo in Abuja
The federal government’s ambitious drive to revive the country’s once-thriving Cotton, Textile and Garment (CTG) industry has faced fresh setbacks amid collapsing domestic cotton production, idle factories, and mounting financial distress.
With domestic cotton production reportedly collapsing, ginneries operating below capacity, and textile factories struggling with inadequate raw materials, the revival drive appeared to be at risk.
Managing Director, Market Hub Media Limited, Mr. Eneojo Idakwo, warned that the country could end up pursuing an industrial revival without the cotton required to sustain it.
In a statement, Idakwo also identified unresolved institutional arrangements around the proposed coordination of the sector as another major threat to the implementation of government’s revival strategy.
According to him, Nigeria’s cotton output has plunged to less than 10,000 metric tonnes annually, from about 300,000 metric tonnes at the sector’s peak, leaving many of the country’s 26 ginneries either operating far below installed capacity or completely idle.
He stated that the country had already lost two planting seasons without interventions on the scale required to reverse the decline.
Idakwo warned that continued inaction could leave Nigeria increasingly dependent on imported textile inputs even as the federal government pushed import substitution and domestic manufacturing.
He said the situation exposed a fundamental contradiction in Nigeria’s industrialisation agenda: while government was developing policies to rebuild manufacturing, the agricultural base required to supply those factories remained severely weakened.
He stated that the collapse of the sector had not occurred in isolation, but reflected the breakdown of linkages across the entire CTG value chain.
Idakwo said, “The future of Nigeria’s CTG sector is no longer defined by whether revival is necessary. There is broad consensus that it is both necessary and urgent.”
He added, “The real issue is how that revival should be coordinated. The disagreement is less about the destination than the institutional architecture required to get there.”
The institutional question centres on the April 2025 approval by the National Economic Council (NEC) for the establishment of a Cotton, Textile and Garment Development Board (CTGDB), to be domiciled in the presidency.
The proposed board was designed as a private-sector-driven, inter-ministerial institution, with representation from the Ministries of Agriculture and Food Security; Finance; Budget and Economic Planning; and Industry, Trade and Investment.
The board was also to comprise governors representing the six geopolitical zones and other relevant stakeholders.
However, the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI) had been pursuing a separate model involving the establishment of a Cotton, Textile and Garment Development Council under its supervisory framework.
Idakwo said the disagreement should not be dismissed as a mere bureaucratic contest, stating that it raises a fundamental question about how a value chain cutting across agriculture, manufacturing, finance, trade, infrastructure, exports and state-level development should be governed.
He said both positions had legitimate considerations.
While FMITI remained the lead ministry for industrial policy, Idakwo pointed out that “cotton originates on farms, not in factories”. This meant that agriculture, finance, planning, state governments, development finance institutions, customs, standards regulators and private investors all had critical roles to play.
Idakwo stated, “The CTG value chain extends beyond any single institution’s mandate. That reality, perhaps, explains why NEC adopted an inter-ministerial model.”
He warned that without adequate coordination, the weaknesses at different points in the chain would continue to reinforce one another.
Idakwo the decline in cotton production had weakened ginneries; inadequate lint supply had constrained spinning and weaving; shrinking textile production had increased dependence on imported fabrics, while the weakness of the garment segment had reduced opportunities for large-scale employment and exports.
“It is a vicious cycle in which the failure of one segment deepens the weakness of another,” he said.
For farmers, he said there was little incentive to cultivate cotton without assured markets, affordable inputs, and access to finance. Ginneries, in turn, could not operate without sufficient seed cotton, while textile mills could not compete without dependable supplies of locally produced yarn and fabric.
Garment manufacturers were also being forced to contend with higher production costs because of their reliance on imported materials.
Idakwo insisted that Nigeria’s CTG revival could not be reduced to reopening factories.
He said the recovery had to start from the farm and move systematically through seed production, cultivation, ginning, spinning, weaving, garment manufacturing and ultimately exports.
“Neither perspective is incompatible,” he said of the competing institutional proposals, stressing that institutional reform can provide the framework while actual production would determine whether the framework was delivering results.
He said stakeholders would ultimately judge the revival not by the number of policies announced or committees created, but by tangible improvements in production indicators.
Idakwo stated, “They will measure progress in hectares planted, tonnes harvested, ginneries operating at capacity, mills returning to production, garment factories expanding and Nigerian-made products regaining market share.”
FMITI maintained that the problems confronting the sector were structural and accumulated over several decades, and, therefore, could not be reversed within a single year.
The ministry also expressed support for a single national coordinating institution, but insisted that whatever structure was adopted must provide legal certainty, accountability and operational effectiveness.
Idakwo said this position could provide an avenue for resolving the institutional disagreement.
He disclosed that the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation had initiated a harmonisation process following the NEC decision, describing it as a potential pathway for reconciling the competing proposals.
Rather than allowing the disagreement to prolong uncertainty, he said government could establish a unified framework that retained the inter-ministerial coordination envisaged by NEC while incorporating FMITI’s industrial policy expertise and implementation capacity.
He warned that time was becoming a critical factor in the revival effort.
Idakwo explained, “Every planting season without expanded cotton production delays recovery. Every year factories remain idle increases rehabilitation costs. Every skilled worker who leaves represents human capital that is not easily replaced.”
According to him, the real test of the government’s policy would be whether interventions reached farmers before the planting season, whether ginneries could secure adequate cotton, whether textile manufacturers could obtain affordable raw materials and finance, and whether garment producers could access competitive local fabrics.
“The farmer waiting for improved seeds is less concerned about whether the institution is called a board or council than whether support arrives before planting season,” he said.
Similarly, he said ginnery operators were more concerned about securing cotton than administrative reporting lines, while textile manufacturers needed reliable raw materials, affordable financing, stable power and competitive production costs.
“For each operator, success is tangible: factories reopening, machines running, workers returning, investments increasing and exports growing. Only then can Nigeria reclaim its industrial position,” he said.
Idakwo stressed that the country had reached a point where further policy declarations must give way to execution.
He stated that policy frameworks had largely been articulated, institutional options debated, stakeholders consulted, and the harmonisation process commenced.
“The next chapter belongs to implementation,” he said, warning that Nigeria’s ability to turn the current period into the beginning of a textile renaissance would depend on whether government and industry could move beyond institutional boundaries and focus on measurable economic outcomes.
For a country seeking to diversify its economy, generate mass employment, reduce import dependence and rebuild domestic manufacturing capacity, Idakwo said the CTG sector remained too strategically important to be allowed to drift further.
He added that the success or failure of the revival effort could ultimately depend on whether the country was able to resolve its institutional differences quickly enough to restore cotton production and reconnect the farm to the factory.
