Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun has reported that the state will be partner with a foreign firm in local cotton production.
Abiodun, on Wednesday in Abeokuta told members of the Tailors Association of Nigeria (TAN) that the foreign company would be partnering with the state government in the Special Agro Processing Zone.
“The firm has turned around the production of cotton in Togo, thereby, making the West African country the second largest producer of cotton in the continent of Africa,” Abiodun said.
The governor said that discussions are currently ongoing with the company on cotton production.
“We are currently partnering with a foreign company who has turned around the production of cotton in one of the west African countries.
“Within 12 months, he has turned Togo to the second largest producer of cotton on the continent.
“This company is partnering with us in Ogun state in our special Agro processing zone and we have ongoing discussions on cotton production,” he said.
Abiodun described tailors as an integral part of the small medium scale enterprises whose value is huge.
He said that the tailoring industry potentials in the country still remain untapped.
“You are a value addition to what we are doing in terms of promoting small and medium scale enterprises, you are also a value chain in job creation.
“This is an industry that is performing sub-optimally, the potentials of this industry remain untapped, particularly from the view of garment manufacturing which we know, is the mainstay of some economies in the world where all they do is just garment production and that itself accounts for a large chunk of their GDP.
“This we can confidently achieve in Nigeria, because we have a labour force, if all we focus on is garment manufacturing of the right quality and standard for export and domestic use,” the governor said.
Abiodun, said that the state can boast of high quality cotton.
He said that his administration had released over 1,000 hectares of land to cotton farmers in the state, the highest done by any administration in the state.
The National President of the association, Wasiu Taiwo, corroborated the governor that the potentials of tailoring industry is yet to be fully tapped in the country.
“A little push on the side of government for the industry would amount to massive foreign exchange.
“The country is losing so much as the value chain is huge, it is only through partnership that success can be recorded in the sector,” Taiwo said.
He, however, said that the name of the association has been changed from Nigerian Union of Tailors (NUT) to Tailors Association of Nigeria (TAN).
Taiwo said that the change in name would further assist the association to break barriers.
