The Federal Government is ready to support locally produced fabric, Adire with subsidy.
The FG also planned to help establish industrial hubs for Adire across the country to further boost revenue for market women selling the local fabric while curbing its importation.
The Minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Betta Edu, disclosed this on Saturday during her visitation to Adire Mall at Itoku and Asero in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
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She also assured the local producers that the government was ready to make the fabric known around the world.
Edu, who was accompanied by the National Programme Manager of the Community and Social Development Project, Olubunmi Bello, added that there was a need for the government to ban the importation of foreign Adire products.
She said, “Local production must be enhanced at all costs to meet the demand. We don’t want to be selling fake Adire, made in China Adire brought into Nigeria. What we want are local ones made by our people to create jobs, it will build micro and macro economy and it will help Nigeria to be more of a manufacturing country rather than an importing country.
“These are the things that are affecting the exchange rates and other indexes in Nigeria. The government will provide subsidy for the people, so we take the fuel subsidy off the fuel, but we will provide it for the Adire makers so that they can provide local Adire that will be used and exported out of the country.
“I was so happy yesterday when the governor and his team said they are going to create hubs in Abuja where the original Adire would be sold. This is taking Abeokuta, and Ogun State to the world, and these hubs can be created even at embassies in other countries around the world where we can export Adire.
“This is the original one, not the fake which is imitated and brought in. For us if we support the local manufacturers, subsidise this for them, and bring more people into this to meet the demand, it will automatically eliminate the ones that come into the country.
“We are here today in Ogun State basically, we want to see those areas where we can support persons who are poor and be alleviated out of poverty and help them to get skills that will help them strive and sustain families and of course ensure they come out of poverty.
“We have identified about five things with the governor yesterday. Five things we can do almost immediately that will touch lives in Ogun State and this will be able to cover about 100 persons in Ogun State. Part of what we identified yesterday was the Adire creation which is really very typical to Ogun people; it is kind of their identity and what they are known to do very well.
“Adire has both local production and modern production. We’ve been in the market to pick up some of the fabrics and interact with the market people, and Iyaloja. They are here with us. We try to find out what it really takes to get one of these products, how much they cost in terms of product and final product on how they do cost in the market.
“This cloth I am handling is N15,200, we have some that are N25,000, N75,000 in the shops. We have come here to see how it is locally made, and the process of making it, the drying, and all of these stages that finally get to beautiful fabrics that will sell and export.”
She also announced plans to start the training and create new clusters for Adire in two other senatorial districts where it did not exist before.
“After that training, we will do a fashion show of Adire just to launch them out and ensure that they now get the new customers that will support them.
“Adire is a precious fabric all over the world, people recognise and identify with it, so we can build the local production and ensure that more and more people get some of the livelihood, new skills and be able to make money for themselves and their families. Remember the President has targeted the next 42 months to lift 50 million Nigerians out of poverty. These are the way we intend to do it,” she added.
(Punch)
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