Textile imports into Nigeria surged 47% year on year in the first nine months of 2025, underscoring the continued stagnation of the domestic industry despite years of government intervention aimed at reviving local production, official data showed.
Africa’s most populous nation imported textiles and textile articles worth 814.3 billion naira during the period, up from 552.3 billion naira a year earlier, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The sharp rise in imports came as the sector’s real growth rate contracted by 2.4% in the third quarter of 2025, deepening from a 1.3% contraction in the previous quarter.
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Since 2018, the federal government and the Central Bank of Nigeria have rolled out a series of support measures for the cotton, textile and garment value chain, including targeted financing, training programmes and foreign exchange restrictions on textile imports. Authorities have recently reaffirmed their commitment to building a stronger policy framework for the sector, but NBS data show imports have continued to rise, highlighting structural weaknesses in local manufacturing.
Nigeria’s textile industry, once a major employer and contributor to manufacturing GDP, has struggled for decades to regain competitiveness. In the 1970s and 1980s, the country hosted about 180 textile mills employing more than one million workers and supporting a strong cotton value chain. That base eroded from the 1990s due to smuggling, inconsistent policies, unreliable power supply and rising insecurity, even as domestic demand expanded with population growth.
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Aliko Dangote, president of the Dangote Group, said the industry’s decline should serve as a warning on the need to prioritise domestic manufacturing. Speaking at the 5th Adeola Odutola lecture, he said reviving textiles requires more than protectionist measures, calling for strategic investment in inputs and skills to restore competitiveness and deliver sustainable growth.
Industry representatives say only a handful of mills remain operational. Hamma Kwajaffa, director-general of the Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association, said in a previous interview that while around 24 textile companies still exist, only three are functioning properly, largely due to limited patronage by government institutions.
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Policy reversals have also weighed on the sector. Nigeria banned textile imports in 2008, lifted the ban in 2015 while imposing a 35% duty, restricted access to foreign exchange for textile imports in 2019, and removed the FX restriction in 2023. Manufacturers say these shifts have created uncertainty without resolving core cost challenges.
Gabriel Idahosa, former president of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, attributed the collapse of textile mills to Nigeria’s lack of competitiveness in cotton production and high energy costs. He said the weak naira has further raised the cost of importing machinery and raw materials, making locally produced textiles less competitive than imports from countries such as China and Bangladesh.
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Analysts say Nigeria retains opportunities in printed fabrics, which enjoy strong demand domestically and across Africa. The African Continental Free Trade Area could offer access to a market of about 1.5 billion people if Nigeria can rebuild its raw material base, improve energy supply and draw lessons from Asian economies that successfully scaled textile manufacturing.
