The fund is a comprehensive programme to revive the textile sector and designed to improve the value chain from the cotton fields to the factory.
Government's new policy, according to sources, involves an intervention to improve quantity and quality of cotton yields, revive cotton ginneries and encourage value-adding production in the textile sector.
The comprehensive intervention includes building of new power plants in the cotton belt. This multi-pronged initiative is part of the agenda of the Yar'Adua administration to restore the linkage between farming and industry.
The new deal for the cotton and textile sector aims to empower the textile industry to meet local needs and export to the vast markets in West and Central Africa. To achieve this, government is taking steps to stop the dumping of textile products from the Far East, the influx of which has destabilised the local textile industry and led to factory closures and job losses.
Government would also empower cotton farmers with seedlings that have longer yarn count as part of steps to raise the current yarn count of 28 to levels between 33 and 45.
Sources disclosed that the Yar'Adua government hopes to encourage investors to move the textile value chain up another notch by taking up garmenting. Government is convinced that it can replicate in Nigeria the growth boosting effect that garment factories have produced in many parts of Asia and Latin America.
Garment factories create jobs, and the skills they impart could help move the burgeoning fashion industry in Nigeria to another level. "If successfully executed, we would not be surprised to see Nigerian labels on clothes racks across the world," an adviser close to the policy team said.
