Fake human hairs, woven fabric, women’s suits and other goods made the list of N1.4trillion ($1.95 billion) imported items to Nigerian from China in April 2023.
This was made due to the failures of several interventions by the Nigerian government to revive the ailing local textile in the African most populous country.
According to NewTelegraph’s findings, $150million in commodities were shipped from Nigeria to China, resulting in a negative trade imbalance of $1.95 billion out of $2.1 billion in commerce between the two nations in April.
The top Chinese imports to Nigeria include synthetic filament yarn woven cloth worth $160 million, insecticides for $84.1 million, non-knit women’s outfits worth $81.5 million, cellphones at $67.2 million, and false hair worth $59 million. It was discovered that none of the textile companies had begun production since the involvement of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The Central Bank has previously claimed that textile smuggling cost Nigeria about N1.65 trillion per year, resulting in the failure of over 130 businesses.
According to the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, the country’s imports to Nigeria were mostly from Guangdong Province ($544 million), Zhejiang Province ($452 million), and Shandong Province ($242 million).
Hunan Province received $180 million and Jiangsu Province received $138 million, respectively, while Nigeria’s exports to China were mostly to Fujian Province ($45.1), Beijing ($42.5), Zhejiang Province ($12.7), Guangdong Province ($10.7), and Shanghai Province ($7.33). During the time, GACC reported that China’s main imports from Nigeria were petroleum gas ($95.8 million) and crude petroleum ($71.5 million).
$13.5 million for niobium, tantalum, vanadium, and zirconium ore; $13.1 million for zinc ore; and $12.6 million for raw aluminum; furthermore, between April 2022 and April 2023, China’s exports to Nigeria climbed by $409 million, or 24.3%, from $1.69 billion to $2.1 billion, while imports increased by $57.4 million, or 62.3 percent, from $92.1 million to $150 million.
In addition, insecticides increased by $56 million or 19% year on year, synthetic filament yarn woven fabric increased by $37.9 million or 31%, and light synthetic cotton textiles increased by $34.3 million or 1.46 percent. It should be noted that in 2020, some textile material worth N63.6 billion ($132.51 million) was dumped into the Nigerian market.
Wool and woven textiles were among the imported goods supplied to the nation from China. According to the International Trade Statistics on Nigerian Imports, the country received $45 million in wool and woven fabric in 2015, $29.8 million in textile material in 2016, and $22.12 million in 2017, $12.3 million in 2018, and $23.16 million in 2019.
Concerned about the entry of illegal textile into the nation, Mr Kwa-jaffa Hamma, Director General of the Nigerian Textile Employers Association of Nigeria (NTEAN), regretted that none of the dormant textile companies had been restored since 2017. According to reports, the CBN has spent over N120 billion in the Cotton, Textile, and Garment (CTG) value chain since the start of its intervention plan in the industry, with over 320,000 farmers supported between 2018 and 2020.
The apex bank stated that by 2020, seed cotton output will exceed 300,000 metric tonnes in order to increase ginnery capacity to produce over 102,000 metric tonnes of cotton lint, which should meet and exceed the cotton lint need.
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