The Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO), Dr Barclays Ayakoroma, has appealed to the Federal Government to formulate a policy that would facilitate a turnaround of the textile industry.
Ayakoroma made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said the policy should focus on floating a textile development funds, giving tax holiday to investors and preventing foreign textiles from being dumped in Nigeria.
According to him, there is an urgent need to create an enabling environment to resuscitate the industry to create jobs for Nigerians.
“By the time the textile industry is resuscitated and a policy that will encourage Nigerians to wear made in Nigeria textiles is formulated, millions of jobs will be created within a year.
“The value chain in the textile industry is enormous. If the textile companies can stand on their feet, jobs will be created.”
Ayakoroma said that NICO had started promoting a ‘Dress Nigeria Culture Programme’, adding that a memo had been forwarded to the National Council for Culture and Tourism on the scheme.
According to him, the memo proposes that the Federal Government should set aside between two to three days in a week as Dress Nigeria Days.
“Government is yet to come out with a policy statement. We have to go through the engine room to ensure that everything is fine-tuned.
“However, we in the institute have come out with our own policy. We have made Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays `Dress Nigeria Days.’
“If you go to our offices in the six geo-political zones and four state offices across the country, it is the same practice of Dress Nigeria Day.
“The dress code programme is on course at the institute. We recently had a workshop at Minna in Niger, where the governor promised to support the programme.’’ (NAN)
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