Nigerian Fashion Council recommends best approach to Senate’s proposed textile import ban

The Nigerian Fashion Council (NFC), Nigeria’s national Sector Skill Council for the fashion, leather, accessories, and textile (FLAT) industry, has responded to the Nigerian Senate’s proposed resolution calling for a total ban on the importation of foreign textile materials cautioning that a blanket import ban, without the necessary institutional and industry infrastructure in place, risks doing more harm than good to the very sector it seeks to protect.

Nigeria spends approximately $4 billion annually importing clothing and footwear, with an additional $1.2 billion estimated to enter through informal and smuggled routes, even as the country’s domestic consumer fashion market is valued at over $6.8 billion and projected to reach $10 billion. The gap between what Nigeria consumes and what it produces locally represents one of the most significant and largely unaddressed economic failures in the country’s industrial history.

However, a sudden ban without a supply-side development programme will create immediate scarcity, drive inflation in fabric and clothing prices, and hurt the small fashion businesses and artisans the policy is intended to support. For domestically produced textiles to substitute imported fabrics credibly, they must meet quality and performance standards that Nigerian consumers and fashion businesses will accept, and those standards do not yet exist in codified, enforceable form. Without them, a ban simply redirects demand without building a competitive industry.

Funmi Ajila-Ladipo, executive chairperson, Nigerian Fashion Council, said “We understand the frustration behind the Senate’s proposal. Nigeria’s textile industry collapse is real, it is painful, and it demands urgent action. But a blanket import ban imposed on an industry that currently lacks the production capacity, quality standards, and institutional infrastructure to meet domestic demand will not revive our textile sector.”

Ajila-Ladipo added that such sudden complete textile import ban “Will create scarcity, drive up costs for consumers and fashion businesses, and push trade further underground. We urge the Senate to pause on this proposal and instead work with institutions like the Nigerian Fashion Council to develop a structured, evidence-based revival strategy that builds capacity before restricting supply.”

The Nigerian Senate has proposed an outright ban on the importation of all foreign textile materials, citing the decimation of Nigeria’s once-thriving textile sector, which at its peak in the 1970s and 1980s boasted nearly 167 mills and employed hundreds of thousands of workers. Over 180 mills have since shut down, with the sector continuing to lose productive capacity in the face of cheap imported alternatives, largely from Asia.

Nigeria’s experience with previous import restrictions also demonstrates that blanket bans without enforcement capacity and economic alternatives tend to expand smuggling rather than eliminate importation. Furthermore, a revived textile industry requires a trained workforce from cotton cultivation and fibre processing through to weaving, dyeing, finishing, and garment production that does not currently exist at the scale required. Without investment in skills and education infrastructure, a ban creates demand for local production that the industry cannot yet supply.

Ajila-Ladipo further said that “Nigeria has tried the ban approach before and the mills are still closed. The difference this time must be that we build the institution alongside the policy. We urge the Senate not to pass this proposal in its current form. Instead, we invite the relevant Senate committees to engage with the Nigerian Fashion Council on developing a strategy that will actually work, one that is structured, evidence-based, and institution-led.”
The Nigerian Fashion Council formally invites the relevant Senate committees, Federal Ministries, and key industry stakeholders to engage with the Council on the development of a coordinated national framework for the textile sector revival.

The Nigerian Fashion Council (NFC) is Nigeria’s national Sector Skill Council for the fashion industry, established under the FLAT framework – Fashion, Leather, Accessories, and Textiles – and inaugurated on 4 March 2025 by the Federal Ministry of Education through the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE). The Council operates at the intersection of industry, government, and academia, driving policy development, professional standards, education reform, programme delivery, and sustainability across Nigeria’s fashion value chain.