Nigeria, China in $2b cotton deal
News & Trends •
nigeria and a chinese firm have signed a memorandum of understanding mou on first-ever cotton value chain industry worth two billion us dollars1 the minister of industry trade and investment mr okechukwu enelamah unveiled the deal in abuja where he said the agreement was signed with shandong ruyi international fashion industry1 the minister explained that the agreement would involve cotton growing to ginning spinning textile manufacture and garment in katsina kano abia and lagos states1 their investments will comprise aggregation and off take of cotton from farmers for ginning spinning and weaving and manufacturing at least 300 million metres of african print which will meet 20 per cent of west africas demand1 others are producing cotton and denim garments for export and local consumption by ruyi group in abia lagos and kano states enelamah said1 he added that in china president xi jinping promised to open chinas market for agricultural products from nigeria based on trade negotiating engagements by nigerias trade negotiators1 enelamah said for industrialisation the government was aggressively implementing the nigeria industrial revolution plan nirp by establishing the nigeria industrial policy and competitiveness advisory council1 he said the focus would be on five high priority areas policy and regulation trade and markets critical infrastructure skills capacity building and lastly financing1 enelamah said that the government had begun the establishment and upgrading of some existing industrial parks to world-class special economic zones sezs across the six geo-political zones in the country1 according to him for the agreement establishing the african continental free trade area afcfta there is a serious ongoing technical work to strengthen nigerias trade policy infrastructure1