Need to support Aba tailors to create employment 

Youth restiveness, armed robbery, kidnapping, swindling and other heinous crimes perpetrated by youths in the South-East and South-South regions of Nigeria, have been blamed on unemployment.

To stem the tide and make the youths responsible and productive, the three tiers of government-Federal, State and the Local Government should support entrepreneurs, like the Association of Tailors and Fashion Designers (ATFAD) Abia State that has instituted programmes that has engaged fresh school leavers and turning them into professionals and self-employed.

Findings have shown that young secondary school leavers and those seeking admission into tertiary institutions are the ones always used by negative minds in the society to cause mayhem. And to change the trend and engage these youths into productive activities, ATFAD has evolved a system that enables its members to engage young people, as part of its social responsibility to the state and the country at large.

“We are trying to arrest unemployment in Abia State, by engaging fresh secondary school graduates. Everybody will not work in the banking and oil industries. People should aspire to be self employed,” affirmed Onyebuchi Nwaigwe, president ATFAD.

According to Nwaigwe, ATFAD has a law that ensures that tailors in one-room shops, must at least engage two apprentices annually, while the big operators are advised to employ not less than three apprentices, annually.

This arrangement is not only aimed at creating employment, but also to raise successors to the retired practitioners, and thereby ensuring that Aba sustains its position, as the fashion capital of Nigeria.

At first, the responsibility of these apprentices would be to run errands and the patient ones among them, within two to three years, become qualified tailors.

The plan is to make them tailors and help them become self employed, as well as, help the state government reduce unemployment and take youths out of the streets.

ATFAD has also made it mandatory that all members must specialise in one area of the profession. The era of one person making shirts at the same time, involved in the making of suites and other garments have been banned, given rise to professionalism.

Tailors in Aba in the past were into all segments of tailoring. For instance, a one-room tailor made all sorts of clothes at the end of the day, making him a master of none. Consequently, the birth of ATFAD brought innovations in the sector and they discovered that it is better to specialise in one item and do it well.

In the words of Nwigwe, “We made a law that stipulates that every one-room tailor must produce one item. It is either you produce just trousers, suits or shirts, among others. However, if you are in a flat and want to make everything, you are allowed, but it must be departmentalised and experts engaged to run each department.

“And this has worked for us since we instituted the law, about nine years ago, and as the president of the association, I can proudly move round the world with our products, because they meet international standards. But lack of modern machinery is our greatest challenge. We only have manual machines. However, with our experience, we have tried to make our products compete with foreign-made ones”.

He commended the efforts of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), which according to him, has opened their eyes to modern ways of doing business.

“I wouldn’t fail to commend UNIDO that has organised series of workshops for us, where we have been enlightened on how to run our businesses.

For example, in the past, I didn’t know the difference between personal and business finances. I used to combine the two, until UNIDO opened my eyes. Some of us that were not opportuned to be literate, through these trainings are now being educated and informed adequately. We now know better,” he said.

He criticised past administrations in Abia State for turning blind eyes to their calls for help. “Our state government is not reciprocating our gesture. They are giving deaf ears to our problems. The association is presently being sponsored by few individuals. What is happening now is that most of our members get involved in our activities when those individual sponsors bring something that they can benefit from and when there is nothing to share, they would all return to their various shops.

“And there is no time these sponsors can bring something that all members can fully gain from, in the absence of the government and that is the problem we are faced with now.

“We have been calling on the government to help us because there is no such association in the country. I can proudly say it. But our state government does not know what they have and that is why we have been shouting and I pray that the current government in the state will listen to us and come to our aid.

He appealed to government agencies, especially the Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Nigerian Export, Import Bank (NEXIM) to support the fashion industry to produce seamless products that will compete favourably in the international market.

He also urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to use part of the N220 billion small and medium enterprises fund, to acquire modern equipment needed in the industry, especially labeling and buttonhole machines that are not readily available in the country, to aid in finishing of their works.

Nwaigwe further argued that Aba garment makers have the capacity to produce for local and export markets, if the right facilities and equipment are made available to them.

He also appealed to the Abia State Government to fulfill its promise of developing the industrial cluster at Umukalika in Obingwa Local Government Area, to provide a more conducive environment for the leather and garment sectors of the economy.

The Umukalika industrial site, spanning about 35 acres, was earmarked for the project, but left undeveloped, by previous administrations in the state.