Textile imports surge as Northern Nigeria struggles to revive cotton industry - Businessday NG

BusinessDay

Adeola Ajakaiye

August 13, 2026

Nigeria’s once-thriving textile industry is facing a deeper structural crisis as fabrics imported from China, India and Pakistan increasingly dominate the domestic market, leaving local manufacturers struggling to compete and weakening the link between northern Nigeria’s cotton farms and its traditional textile centres.

Suleiman Umar, managing director of Tofa Textile Limited, Kano, said the growing dependence on imported textiles had become one of the clearest indications of the country’s failure to rebuild its cotton-to-textile value chain.