***Stakeholders Urge Dagote to give the sector special concession with N650 per liter AGO

The Federal Government of Nigeria has reiterated its determination under the President Bola Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress (APC) led administration to turn around the fortunes of the country by revamping the textile industry.
This it said will ensure the cotton, textile and garment sector of the Nigerian economy take the lead in creating employment reducing insecurity, increasing industrialisation and reduce import dependenc.y
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Doris Nkiruka Uzoka-Anite who spoke at a town hall meeting of stakeholders in the cotton value chain, yesterday said, it will also create import substitution, increase exports and hence actually generate all the foreign exchange that the coubtry needs.
Minister stated further that after listening to some of the comment and speeches, she is even more encouraged, and have become optimistic that the cotton textile and garment sector of Nigeria will be revitalized under the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu
“During his campaign he made these promises to this sector and now we are fulfilling the promise.
“You have witnessed the opportunity where we are bringing investors, we are bringing the plan of action that will really turn around and revive the cotton, textile and garment sector.
“We are expecting to create job opportunities immediately. In the next three to six months we should be seeing injection of capital, technical support, increase in market access for the textile and the garment sector”
“This is going to be a significant economic boost and super increase in our GDP portraits and a super impact on our economies, from the local economy the communities all the way to the industries.
“We should see that job creation that we have all looked out for. The projection we see from Arise is that within the next two years we should be creating 200,000 jobs, we know that the capacity of the industry can actually grow into millions.
“It will also have the multiplier effect by creating a boom in the fashion designing sector, in the garment making sector where the Nigerian designs in prints, fabric have actually gained a world recognition and that we can latch on to the fashion industry to further increase the consumption and the demand for cotton, textile and garment that are being produced within the country.
“We have the population, we have the market, we have the excitement and the enthusiasm and now we are getting technical and finances support and we are bringing in the foreign investors directly into this value chain.
“I think this is just the beginning. I want to thank the President for his vision, his leadership in ensuring that we are able to revamp, restructure and reposition the cotton, textile and garment sector of the Nigerian economy to take the lead in creating employment reducing insecurity, increasing industrialisation, reducing import dependency, creating import substitution and of course increasing exports and hence we can actually generate all the foreign exchange that we need. “The challenges are there but I can assure you that they are in the past. In the words of the President, he will always tell you the challenges are in the past, now is solution focused, how do we move forward, how do we bring about the solution.
“That is what we have started here and that is what we are proposing. For me it is a new turn around, it is a new time, a new period of renewed hope for the country, this is actually the renewed hope.We look forward to the subsequent meetings and engagements.
She pointed out that the two weeks given to the investor is a short time “but we told they they must come back in two weeks and they gave us the commitment and they agreed to it.
“Subsequently we will engage more stakeholders, have more stakeholders engagement to see the result of the out come of the due diligence that they will be carrying out, factory specific engagement that they will be having.
“The intention here is to invest first in your factory, in your farm lands, in whatever production lines that you have, invest first in it even before we think of investing new capital. We are bringing in Investment we bring in new marchinery if your machinery is moribund and outdated
She said, the government is bringing in new technology that will help to improve the production and capacity of the factories, training their staff, bringing the right seeds and inputs, bringing all that is necessary to ensure that the yield is guaranteed, and “the right quantity and quality that we can even be able to compete internationally.”
President of Federation of agricultural commodity of Nigeria (FACAN), Sherrif Balogun said the sector has been brought together to take the opportunity and see what can be done.
“We are also excited that investment opportunities are coming in for the textile and it will give us opportunity to move our garments into the US and other parts of the world
“We need to cooperate, we need to have a change of mindset
We know the problems, we know what we need to do, what is remaining is the solution
“There will be total involvement of the players in the sector. Let us look at it positively, yes we know there are problems but how do we tackle them? What are the solutions.
“What are the other things we need to do and we have to do it immediately
“Iam happy we are changing the narrative from that of abandoning, closure to that of hope.
“Currently Nigeria is facing crises of foreign exchange, low purchasing power, unemployment. We cannot resolve these crises unless we turn them into opportunities. “Our economy started relying on capital market. We should move to adding value to our raw materials
He said the President in his manifesto promised if he takes power he will do everything to revive the textile industry
“Now that police, Navy will be producing their garment with us. Also now that Dangote has reduce the desiel pump price to N950 liter. We are asking Dangote to give special concession to the Textile to be able to get diesel at N650 special price

In its quest to bring tranquility to the tempestuous foreign exchange market the Federal Government has asked for investment and increased trading relationships from member countries of the G-24.
These will play a critical role in the country’s quest for growth as well as ensure a stable and growing economy.
Director of Information and Public Relations Mohammed Danjuma quoted the Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, to have made the request at the ongoing World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings holding in Washington DC.

Represented by the Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr. Ben Akabueze, the Minister informed the G-24, a group of countries working together to coordinate the positions of developing countries on international monetary and financial issues and indeed the global gathering that Nigerian Government, on its part, has administered a cocktail of intervention programmes and potent policies which are already yielding desired outcomes.

He explained that
the efforts of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Administration towards repositioning the economy
were already yielding desired outcomes, which has significantly narrowed the gap between the exchanges at the parallel market and the Nigeria Foreign Exchange Market.

Edun said that Nigeria was well positioned to attract investments in various sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, oil and gas, amongst others.

While responding to a question from a Russian journalist on areas of cooperation between the two countries, the Minister said that the last major investment of the Eastern European nation in Nigeria was the Ajaokuta Steel Company, which currently lies prostate over large sprawling greenfield.

He informed further that apart from Brazil, there is no country in the world with as much arable land as Nigeria, as such, the country should be a net exporter of food and not an importer.

Edun also justified the decision for the Dangote Refinery to work on meeting local demands of petroleum products before eyeing export markets.

“Does it make a meaning that domestic demand is not yet met and a company refines products and exports, while Nigeria goes and imports the same products from Europe?” he queried.

The Minister added that local refining would be encouraged until indigenous demand has been fully met, and then the nation can export products as well as earn foreign exchange from such exports.

On budget implementation, he said that the capital component of the 2023 supplementary budget was still being implemented and would run until June due to government’s determination to make impacts in various sectors.

The Minister added that the 2024 budget was being implemented as planned, assuring that the citizens would be better for it.

The Minister of Finance and Co-ordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun, has said that the Federal Government will pin down Ways and Means to deal with the problem of too much liquidity in the system, in its avowed determination to alleviate the pressure of excess money in the system.

The Minister made the disclosure in Washington DC, United States of America, while answering questions from journalists shortly
after a meeting with investors at the on-going Spring Meetings of the IMF and World Bank.
The director of Information and Public Relations Mohammed Manga in a statement quoted the minister to have informed the global gathering that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Administration was fully determined to
pinning down on Ways and Means to alleviate the pressure of the excess money in the system.

He added that in the light of this, the fiscal and monetary authorities were also working towards bringing down inflation. 

Mr. Edun added that by so doing, *the two authorities are working hand in hand to bring down inflation and pressure on price stability and stabilising the exchange rate with the target of bringing down interest rates so that investors can borrow at a more affordable rate with a view to getting the economy going the right direction again.

“We need to borrow less and focus more on domestic resource mobilization. We want long-term resources to avoid repayment and refinancing pressures, he said.

The Minister added further that the nation’s tax/GDP was too low, even lower than the African region’s average and that as such, reforms were underway to streamline the number of taxes, deploy technology and implement policies that would double tax revenue in the next three years
“At 10 percent to GDP, what should I say? It would appear as if some people are not paying their taxes. Our strategy is to increase the tax revenue without increasing the rate of taxes. We want to deploy technology to make tax collection more efficient. 
“Our analysis has shown that 90 percent of tax revenue comes from nine tax heads while we have over 80 taxes from federal through states to local  councils.
“If we eliminate the large number of these taxes and concentrate on the nine that yield the current 90 percent revenue and deploy technology, there will be more efficiency and we will be able to double our tax revenue in about three years”, Edun said

He stated further that “if we eliminate the large number of taxes and bill people properly, we will gain in terms of the peoples’ willingness to pay and you will collect more revenue.” The Minister assured.

While addressing a question on food security, the Minister said that the present administration was dealing with the problem so as to provide farmers’ access to their farms, especially in parts of the country where insecurity has played a major role in reducing food production. 

Mr. Edun added that agro clusters were being developed in collaboration with the African Development Bank so as to increase food production in the country. 

Alongside the Minister at the meeting were the former Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance Mrs Lydia Shehu Jafiya, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Mr Olayemi Cardoso and some other top government officials.