Nigeria’s once-thriving textile sector is now fast disappearing due largely to competition from Chinese imports. But don’t blame the Chinese, said Mansur Ahmed, president of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, who puts a lot of the responsibility for the industry’s demise squarely at the feet of the government in Abuja.

High production costs, poor power supply, bad roads, worsening security conditions, and legions of rogue Nigerian importers have all made it impossible for the industry to compete with low-cost imports.
 

“China can produce textiles at the cost of 20% of what any company in Nigeria can,” he said in an interview with Punch. “The Chinese would recover their cost in their market and the remaining would be dumped here at any price, apart from the fact that some of our people encourage them to reduce the quality as well.”