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Cottage textile factories deserve support
2006-03-01 07:05:46
By Editor
In the 1970s, Tanzania was acclaimed for having one of the best textile sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. At least a dozen of clothing factories were located in different regions, employing hundreds of thousands of workers.
Majority of these factories were parastatals, with the government commanding either bulk shares in nationalized factories, or total ownership in new assets.
Various theories have been advanced as to why this once booming sector collapsed in government hands, although some of its products might have been inferior, as was the case with the bleached textile materials produced at the time.
Almost all textile factories failed to hold out, even fleetingly, against competition from cheap secondhand clothing imports, as well as new and cheaper textiles from China and India in the wake of trade liberalization.
Economic liberalisation went hand in hand with divestiture of the ailing textile plants. The good news, obtained from official data, shows that over the past five years, the private sector has pumped over USD30m into reviving the textile sub sector. In addition, more than 12, 000 jobs have been created over that period.
It is encouraging to note that the Confederation of Tanzania Industries (CTI) and private textile stakeholders have opted for integrated production of fabrics with a view to using domestically spun yarn and woven clothing made out of home grown cotton.
Some of the products like khanga, kitenge and canvas, have a competitive edge, and are selling well in regional markets like the SADC.
Unfortunately, while medium-to-large textile investors are making notable advances, the cottage textile industry seems to be in the doldrums.
So far, owing to inefficient operations, Urafiki and Tabora textile mills which used to supply small-scale enterprises with yarn, no longer do so. Imported yarn is too expensive for the cottage industrialists. .
At this juncture, a tactical intercession is urgently called for. While one could imagine that some sort of fiscal intervention could make local yarn more competitive, yet a dilemma lingers as to why the two existing domestic yarn producing mills have declined to sell their products to the domestic cottage industry.
In all emerging economies, and especially in India and some rural parts of China, the cottage textile industry is key to creating jobs and generating skills.
The small and medium textile enterprises (SMEs) in China, for instance, can meet huge orders from the US malls by combining their efforts and maintaining the highest quality and standards.
It is encouraging that the Small Industries Development Organisation (SIDO) is running a series of training on entrepreneurship for SMEs, and we can only hope that cottage textile firms will be given special attention because of their strategic importance to the economy.
Encouraging news is that the cottage textile industry has survived all the tremors of globalisation throughout emerging economies.
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