Nigeria imported textiles and textile articles worth N578.51 billion in the first six months of 2026, reflecting continued pressure on the domestic textile industry as stakeholders push for stronger support for local production.
Latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics in the second quarter of 2026 showed that textile imports rose by 2.2 per cent from N565.95bn recorded in the first half of 2025.
The latest figure also extended a long-term increase in Nigeria’s dependence on imported textiles. Textile and textile article imports stood at N365.46bn in 2022 before rising to N377.47bn in 2023, N726.18bn in 2024 and N1.06tn in 2025.
Year-on-year, textile imports increased by 3.3 per cent in 2023, surged by 92.4 per cent in 2024 and climbed by 46.1 per cent in 2025. The 2.2 per cent increase recorded in the first half of 2026, however, points to a much slower growth pace than the sharp increases in the preceding two full years.
Speaking at the Industrial Revolution Work Group Technical Session II held in Lagos on 10 September, the Director-General of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, said the decline of the textile industry had severely affected employment and production capacity.
“Textiles are an important area. During my first assignment in the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, I was coordinating seven states from Abuja to Kaduna, which had seven textile industries. Today there is zero. So it tells the story,” Ajayi-Kadir said.
He added that the industry previously employed about 25,000 workers, stressing that the demand for clothing provided a strong market for domestic textile production. “But the fact remains that everybody must wear something. So there is no need for us to overemphasise the fact that it is important and it is an area that we play,” the MAN DG remarked.
Ajayi-Kadir noted that manufacturers needed to revive the cotton-textile-garment value chain and strengthen domestic demand for locally produced goods. “It has suffered negative growth,” he affirmed.
Ajayi-Kadir hinted at recovery, adding, “What we need to do is revive the cotton-textile-garment value chain input supply. And this is already being done.”
The MAN director-general also pointed to the Federal Government’s efforts to increase the uptake of locally manufactured products through its procurement policies. “We must sign on to export facilitation and Made-in-Nigeria public uptake. To give effect to this, we’ve had the Made-in-Nigeria Executive Order, and it’s now supported by ‘Nigeria First’ (policy),” he said.
Other stakeholders have also highlighted the potential for the domestic industry to recover and expand beyond the Nigerian market.
In an earlier report, the President of the Association of Women in Fashion Tech, Bukola Ajani, told The PUNCH that the local textile industry was being reinvigorated and could increasingly serve markets in other African countries and Europe.
The focus on textiles also forms part of the work of thematic group four of the Industrial Revolution Work Group, which is dedicated to Made-in-Nigeria Patronage and Anti-Counterfeit.
The group is addressing issues including public perception, standard laboratories, smuggling, procurement misalignment and the decline of the textile, pharmaceutical and steel sectors.
The IRWG, co-chaired by the Minister of State for Industry, Sen. John Enoh, and the President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Francis Meshioye, is, among others, expected to support measures aimed at strengthening domestic production and increasing patronage of Nigerian-made goods.
As the Federal Government moves to implement the Nigeria First policy, more consumers are also turning to locally produced textile brands, including Merok, produced by Onchek, a brand founded in 2016.