A renown Kano industrialist, Alhaji Dattijo Adhama, has said that cotton alone can bail the north out from poverty if government, farmers and industrialists in the region can give the commodity the deserved attention.
Adhama disclosed this recently at the 2nd Ramadan Lecture organised by the Islamic Forum of Nigeria in Kano.
He said: “The region is known for cotton production for many decades.
“The late Emir of Kano, Alhaji Abdullahi Bayero, was the first to establish cotton industry in the country. In the past, north alone was producing 18 per cent of the total cotton needed in the world, but unfortunately the whole of Nigeria is now producing only 15 per cent.”
Adhama further revealed that some industrialists had conducted an experiment in Kano on cotton production and that the result was impressive.
“We have selected Kunchi and Nassarawa local government areas of the state as our case study. For Kunchi, we discovered that if N10 million can be invested in cotton production in the local government, the local government can generate N27m as Value Added Tax (VAT), while Nassarawa can generate N57m VAT. This was apart from providing jobs to many unemployed youths in the areas,” he said.
He lamented that the region lacked some facilities that could promote production of cash crops, citing lack of presence of Africa Development Bank in the region as example.
He said the north had all the potentials needed to depend on agriculture, but unfortunately that it lacked the necessary support from government at all levels.
“Another major challenge facing the region is lack of industrial training. The north needs Industrial Training Fund with a view to training its people on modern ways of doing businesses,” he said.
The industrialist further pointed out that lawmakers from the region needed to do more to compel the Central Bank of Nigeria and other related organisations to introduce loan schemes that would tally with the provisions of Islam.
He said: “Lawmakers from the region should ensure that the CBN and BOI Acts are reviewed to protect the interest of Muslims. All the programmes these banks are introducing should be made to tally with provisions of Islam so that we can benefit. We are Nigerians, entitled to these loans and therefore, arrangements should be made to protect our interest.”
