EEG: Textile Manufacturers Pledge Cooperation
By Crusoe Osagie
The Nigerian Textile Manufacturers Association (NM) has expressed its willingness to cooperate with the federal government to work out safeguards measures for the Export Expansion Grant (EEG), to prevent the misuse of the scheme by some exporter.
The Chairman of the Association, Senator Walid Jubrin, who made this statement during the visit of the House Committee on Commerce and the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC) to some mills in Lagos at the weekend, therefore, appealed that the scheme should be allowed to continue.
He said with the decision to temporarily suspend the EEG scheme would completely send the wrong signals to all stakeholders with huge economic loses, thereby eroding Nigeria's image in the international market.
He noted the commitment of the President in setting up a Presidential Committee on Textiles in 2002, saying that this move resulted to the promised to sustain the EEG policy until 2007.
"Based on this commitment, the textile companies have invested massive amounts to modernize and expand their capacity", he said.
Walid disclosed that since 2002, a capital investment of 40 million dollars had been spent on plant and machinery by about 14 companies with a further outIay of 43 million dollars being envisaged from 2004 to 2007.
With the EEG scheme, he said exports of textile products had increased from 25 million dollars in 2002 to 45 million dollars in 2003 and the forecast for 2004 is 79 million dollars.
He, therefore, promised that the association will work with MAN and other OPS to monitor the implementation of the scheme to check abuses.
According to him, in view of the huge commitment in terms of investment and export orders placed for execution for the next 3 to 6 months, the government should sustain the existing scheme. The commitment chairman, Mr. Isa Saidu said members decided to visit the companies in order to form an opinion on the matter and advise the government appropriately.
At the end of the visit, the committee expressed satisfaction on what was on ground, confirming that the factories were really in operation and had embarked on refurbishment of their machineries and expansion to meet their export commitments.
He promised to collate all the information gathered and put up a recommendation for the government to lift the suspension on the EEG.
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