KEY POINTS

• Industry Minister of State John Enoh unveiled plans to revive Nigeria’s cotton, textile and garment industry, targeting about 1.5 million jobs.
• Nigeria’s cotton output crashed 95 percent from 200,000 metric tonnes in 2001 to roughly 10,000 metric tonnes in 2025.
• The textile sector revival pilot project produced 10,000 made-in-Nigeria T-shirts using locally cultivated cotton, proving the cotton-to-garment cycle can run in six to seven months.

Industry Minister of State John Enoh on Monday unveiled federal plans to revive Nigeria’s Cotton, Textile and Garment industry and create about 1.5 million jobs, following a 95 percent collapse in domestic cotton production from 200,000 metric tonnes in 2001 to roughly 10,000 metric tonnes in 2025.

Enoh disclosed the plan at the National CTG Value Chain Activation Pilot Milestone Event, framing the textile reset as a central pillar of the federal government’s broader Industrial Policy that the administration launched earlier this year, with the once-thriving sector ready to anchor manufacturing and economic diversification.

Now the policy push targets a value chain the minister said collapsed over decades of neglect, weak coordination and dependence on imported materials, with previous interventions failing because they addressed isolated segments rather than the integrated production ecosystem the industry requires.

Cotton’s 95 percent collapse

Specifically, Enoh described the crash from 200,000 to 10,000 metric tonnes as a major setback for Nigeria’s industrial base. The textile industry, which once employed hundreds of thousands of Nigerians, has shrunk dramatically over the same period, with imported clothing dominating local markets.

Indeed, Enoh said the federal government will move beyond policy conversations into practical implementation, citing an active pilot scheme that demonstrated the cotton-to-garment cycle can run in six to seven months from cultivation through processing to finished garments.

“What you have seen today is not a concept note or policy proposal. It is proof that these things are possible and are already happening,” he said.

Pilot results in 10,000 T-shirts

Moreover, the textile sector revival pilot initiative successfully produced 10,000 made-in-Nigeria T-shirts using locally cultivated cotton, a tangible output Enoh said proves Nigerian garments can compete on quality, price and volume against imported alternatives.

“The initiative has proven that Nigeria can produce garments at better quality, better pricing and in larger quantities than imported alternatives,” Enoh said.

Furthermore, the pilot exposed the value chain’s structural weakness as the central problem, with poor coordination among cotton farmers, textile manufacturers and garment producers preventing scale. “The problem is not entirely funding or infrastructure. The real issue is that the value chain was never designed to function as one coordinated system,” Enoh said.

Scaling up nationwide 

Additionally, the federal government plans to scale the pilot by strengthening market linkages, improving financing structures and supporting smallholder cotton farmers across the country. The Bank of Agriculture has indicated readiness to finance cotton production, particularly for smallholder farmers, removing a critical barrier the sector has faced.

Meanwhile, Permanent Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment Chris Osa Isokpunwu described the initiative as a strategic intervention that will revive the textile industry, deepen diversification and create large-scale employment. He said the sector can generate over 1.5 million jobs annually, particularly for women and youths, while enhancing Nigeria’s competitiveness under the African Continental Free Trade Area.

Together with the AfDB’s recent $200 million facility for the Bank of Industry and the federal government’s separate textbook and paper push, the textile initiative positions industrial policy as the Tinubu administration’s most active economic lever heading into 2026’s second half.

Whether the value chain reset translates into the 1.5 million jobs Enoh and Isokpunwu have promised will depend on coordination across farmers, manufacturers and garment producers, plus the speed and discipline of Bank of Agriculture disbursements. Yet for now, Nigeria has the first concrete pilot evidence that locally grown cotton can return to the country’s wardrobes, with the next chapter resting on whether the scale-up survives execution.