Nigeria: India to set up apparel training centre

India's department of commerce announced in a press release on Friday that it has set up the first of its kind apparel training centre in Kaduna, Nigeria, as part of the Cotton Technical Assistance Programme (Cotton TAP) for Africa.

The centre has been set up in partnership with the Nigeriam government under the Second India Africa Forum Summit and was inaugurated on June 22.

According to joint secretary M. K. Dwivedi in the department of commerce, the centre is aimed at "supporting and catalysing the initiative of the government of Nigeria in realising the objectives to rebuild the cotton and textile value chain and addressing the need for a skilled workforce for the domestic as well as the export-oriented apparel industry in the west African region".

The Nigerian textile and garment industry desperately needs a boost as - according to World Bank estimates - it loses billions of US dollars each year due to cheap imports that are smuggled into the country. Thus, local production has dropped to a mere 40 million US dollars annually.

In addition, in the last twenty years, counterfeiting has cost the Nigerian garment and textile industry more than a million jobs. This has forced many apparel and textile factories to close, leaving the whole industry in danger and posing a potential threat to the economy and its position as a new frontier economy. Industry experts estimate that 40 percent of all goods in Nigeria are either substandard or counterfeit.

Photo: 3rd India Africa Forum Summit, Wikipedia