Muhammadu Sanusi, emir of Kano and chairman of United Textile Company Limited (UNTL), says Nigeria’s textile industry is being crippled by poor infrastructure, rampant smuggling, and ineffective copyright enforcement.

Speaking in Kaduna on Thursday after hosting John Enoh, minister of state for trade and investment, on a tour of UNTL, Sanusi said the problems have forced once-thriving companies such as United Textile, SuperTex, Unitex, Zamfara Textiles, and Funtua Textile to halt production.

He said the sector, if revived, could become a major engine for economic growth and job creation, and urged the federal government to adopt policies that would make textile production sustainable.

“Imagine if you could get this factory alive—what it would do to the economy,” Sanusi said. “If you have a country of 200 million people, you need growth in labour-intensive industries like manufacturing and agriculture. Every country that has created jobs and development had to go through a phase of protecting and promoting its secondary sectors.”

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Sanusi praised UNTL’s foreign owners, the Cha family, for continuing to inject funds into Nigeria despite challenges. The family, he said, has textile operations in Ghana, Hong Kong, Europe, and the United States, but has been “forced out of business” locally by unfavourable conditions.

“They have kept putting in money, but infrastructural problems, smuggling problems, and copyright problems are obstacles,” he said. “They will not walk away from their debt, and they will not default.”

Sanusi said renewed dialogue with government could help revive the industry, create jobs, and boost value-addition to the Nigerian economy.

“We would like to produce. We would like to create jobs. We would like to see that we are adding value to the Nigerian economy—if the government can help us,” he said.

Enoh also visited Chellco Industry Ltd during his trip.