Just as the Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, has declared its readiness to work with credible investors in a public-private partnership (PPP) deal to revive the ailing cotton industry in the state, analysts who are in the know of why the industry collapsed in the first instance have expressed fears of the revival.
Some textile experts, who spoke to our Northern Nigeria Bureau Chief, said the only factor that will encourage any investors to think of investing in cotton is a strong guarantee from the federal government that its textile policy, if any, would be salutary and will not be somersaulted midway.
It would be recalled that about three decades ago, Kano was the hub of textile industry in Nigeria, but due to the easy influx of textile materials from the Asian tigers including China and Malaysia, sales dropped, leading to the gradual collapse of several textile mills and end to cotton farming in the state and other parts of the north.
Kano State Governor, Ganduje, had at a workshop for financial journalists with theme: “The Role of Nigeria Banking Sector: Opportunities, Challenges and the Way forward”, organised by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) in Kano, informed the press of his readiness to revive the sector.
He said “We need public-private investment to revive the cotton industry and Kano State Government is ready to partner with investors in the industry.
Ganduje was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Usman Alhaji Usman, at the NDIC workshop.
