‘Nigeria losses $27bn annually to low fashion export’

Nigeria loses about $27 billion annually for being unable to export its fashion products, a fashion expert has said.

The fashion expert, Mrs Alison Amuta, who is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Beauty Green Africa Limited, stated this on Tuesday at a Nigerian fashion sensitisation workshop organised by the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) in Makurdi, Benue state.

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In her presentation, she said: “Nigeria loses to a tune of $27bn dollars annually because of insufficient capacity to export Nigeria fashion products. These products unfortunately are well sought after outside the shores of Nigeria so we have outsiders, foreigners coming into Nigeria and branding those things in their fashion brand names and exporting them and getting revenue and repatriation for our hard work,” she said.

The NEPC Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ezra Yakusak, noted that the country’s fashion and textile industry is the second largest in Africa.

Yakusak, who was represented by the head of NEPC Makurdi office, Ben Anani, said: “The annual revenue for Africa is estimated at $6.2bn in 2021/2022 statistics for both fashion and textile industry and Nigeria takes16 percent of that share.”

Representative of the Benue State Commissioner of Trade and Investment, Paul Egbodo, emphasized the need for youths to engage in small scale business as the white-collar jobs were no longer available to enable them earn a living.