No fewer than 100 textile factories in the country  closed shop  between year 2000 and now, president of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN),Comrade Dele Hunsu, has said.

Hunsu, in an interview with our correspondent at the weekend,  also said the only surviving garment factory in Nigeria  also closed shop recently with about 450 jobs lost. The union’s  president attributed the frequent closure of the country’s   textile and garment factories to unbridled importation, smuggling and lack of water-tight government’s policies to protect infant industries in Nigeria.
Hunsu expressed  displeasure  over the   dwindling fate of the sector that used to provide one of the largest job opportunities for Nigerians as well  as served as economic support for the country  during post-independence era.
He said some of his members accessed loans which they put into their businesses, while  the frequent  smuggling of textile products into Nigeria was to some extent checked by government officials at the border posts when the ban was in force.
He said the bail-out fund would have gone a long way in turning around the fortunes of the sector if government had not  lifted the ban on the importation of  textile products into the country in a recent announcement.
According to him, the removal of the ban on textile products by government  was very unfortunate and ill-advised, adding that the nation has nothing to gain by allowing  its borders to be flooded with all manner of imported products.