The BUA Group Nigeria’s foremost food and infrastructure conglomerate plans to establish West Africa’s largest private-led textile cluster in Kastina State for which it has choosen Swiss firm, Gherzi Textile Organization to study, design master and engineering for the development of mega integrated Textile and Garment Cluster.

BUA Group has entered into collaboration with the Kastina State Government to set-up a Textile and Garment Cluster which would generate over 25,000 jobs and revive the obsolete textile industry in Nigeria.

Kabiru Rabiu, BUA’s group executive director, said that Gherzi was strategically contracted for the assignment because of its proven track record and vast expertise of textile mills and apparel parks worldwide.

The company has successfully undertaken and executed hundreds of textile and apparel parks in over 70 countries for public, private and international institutions across the globe.

As part of their plans to contribute to the revival of the textile industry, they partnered with the Swiss firm, Ghezi, which was established in 1929 because they are arguably the most experienced textile consulting company in the world today.

Moreover, they have deep knowledge about the Nigerian textile industry as they were at one time contracted by the Federal Government of Nigeria to advise on the industry, Rabiu said.

The multinational company specializes in textiles, garments and the textile supply chain, particularly in IT, Architecture, Construction, Mechanical/Electrical engineering and Project management. Expectedly, they meet the stringent professional standard of the Swiss Association of Management Consultants (ASCO) and the Swiss Association of Engineers and Architects (SIA).

On the KTGC development, Rabiu said that this particular investment is part of the Group’s efforts to help to generate over 25,000 jobs and make the moribund textile industry viable again in Nigeria.

Nigeria used to have the largest textile industry in Sub-Sahara Africa in the 1960s and 1980s when the industry played a dominant role in boosting the economy, contributing prominently to country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), today however, the sector that used to be the largest employer of labour after the Federal Government, contributes less than two percent to the economy.

Nigeria imports some $4 billion worth of textiles from overseas, majority of which is smuggled to major textile markets in the country; a situation that has not only undermines the local industry, but deprives people of jobs, the government of revenue and drains country’s foreign reserves which is detrimental to the growth of the economy.

In order to revive the sector, Nigeria must try to be competitive by replicating what other countries with thriving textile industries have done, which is to introduce sound policy, basic infrastructure, as well as strong supply chain from cotton production to processing, all the way to distribution to the market, which is BUA is trying to put in place. BUA is very optimistic about this project, most especially the impact it would have on the economy in terms of job creation and wealth generation.