Cotton is one of the major export crops that Nigeria was noted for as a major producer and exporter in the world. Most cotton farmers have since abandoned cotton farming and taken to other crops, the textile industries that were using cotton as raw material have shut down while export rate for the crop has dropped drastically. Attempts to revive the sector has been a losing battle with more casualties.
But Managing Director and Chief Executive of Arewa cotton, Mr. Anibe Achimugu who agreed that the sector has problems of revival, said a lot of progress have been made and believed that with little more efforts, the problems will soon be overcome.
“For me, I do not think it is a lost battle because the battle as we speak is being fought. The government policy of the CTG funds as I mentioned earlier as being managed by the Bank of Industry (BOI) is a major boost to the revival of the textile sector in Nigeria. Of course, we have issues because you can never be perfect. The BOI on their own appointed consultants to do a midterm review of the CTG fund and its effect on the beneficiaries. As we speak today, I don’t know any loan in Nigeria that has the low cost of the BOI loan; it is about 6 percent.
“The recommendation by the consultant said that the 6 percent should even be reduced to 3 percent. That the moratorium period should be increased to a minimum of 5 percent and the tenure of the loan be between 10 to 15 years. If these things are done, do not forget that they are not coming to intervene in a sector that is crumbling and they want to help it, no. They are coming to a sector that is totally down on its back. That is an indication of how serious the system is towards reviving the textile industries to ensure that tomorrow, these companies that have been revived in this sector are sustainably revived,” he said.
Achimugu, who said his company benefited from a recent BOI bailout that saw it back to life, said, “Another major observation of mine is that they have funded us enough as ginners but I have not known how much they have funded the farmers. Without the farmers, the ginner cannot go anywhere. I am even in a worse situation because if I do not have cotton I cannot convert my gin to do anything else. But as a textile company, if they do not find cotton in Nigeria they can buy elsewhere and print.
“The excuse they always give is that the farmers are not organized. Then, let them use us as ginners to bring them together. If we do not get the raw materials to work with, then where are we? Yes, they have given us money and we are back on our feet, we still have problems of meeting the demand. We do not have enough cotton to cope with the demands we have.
“Quality Nigerian cotton is being sought for all over the world. That is why we said we shall use our meager resources to buy cotton, gin and export but it is not sustainable. We are now backward in integration. That money we are supposed to use to buy the cotton, let us use it first to produce the cotton ourselves. That is a sustainable way to remain in the market,” Achimugu said.
But a cotton farmer in Funtua, Katsina State, Malam Nuhu Bashir told Daily Trust that the major problems of cotton farmers in the country are lack of easy access to loans, inadequate improved seeds and insincerity on the side of cotton companies buying their products.
“Just this year, officials of WACCOT told us that they will work out bank loan for us. We waited for the loan until several months after we planted before they called us to collect the money when it was no more useful to us. You cannot get improved seeds and when they want to buy the cotton, WACCOT will buy below production cost,” he said.
Minister of agriculture, Dr Akinwumi Adesina in an earlier interview with Daily Trust, said, “Let me talk about one area that is important to me which is cotton seed. When my friend, Bukar Tijani (minister of state, Agriculture) and I started work in our first year, we looked for pure cotton seed in the whole of Nigeria, we could not find. We had to go to Benin Republic where they had a public organisation which does their own cotton seed. They said our president would have to come and beg their president for the seed. I refused. We went and contracted WACOT, (West Africa Cotton Company) to produce certified seeds for us.
“That was how we were able to produce 157, 000 metric tons of high quality cotton seed. We were the ones that supported WACOT in 9 locations around the nation. We paid N280 per kilo of seed. The ones the farmers were getting were N42 and it was poor quality seed. Last year we raised 34,000 farmers across nine states in the north and they planted 75, 000 hectares across the country with a total production of 240, 000 of cotton. As the agricultural transformation and revolution takes place in Nigeria, the demand for seed is always rising. It is more than we can cope with. When we started, the number of seed companies in the country was 11. At the end of last year due to our revolution they have grown to 70.
“But we have to start from somewhere. We are the only country in West Africa that does not have high BT quality cotton. Burkina Faso has 183, 000 hectares. Why is this important? BT cotton means you don’t use pesticides. The yield is much higher. We don’t have BT cotton here in Nigeria. It means we cannot compete. Their cost of production is going down while ours is going higher. I am for biotechnology,” he said.