NBS, Farmers Sign MoU On Building Data In Cotton Production

The National Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to build credibility in data collection in the cotton sector.

It is believed that this agreement will drive up investment and increase output capacity in the cotton sector.

The arrangement will help generate timely, adequate, and reliable data to aid decision-making and identify investment opportunities in that sector.

Another benefit of this pact is that it would help the government monitor development in the sector and assess the various government intervention programs, such as the CBN anchor borrower program, as well as the Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC), the Statistician-General of the Federation, Simon Harry said.

According to Businessday.ng, cotton accounts for nearly 15% of global exports, with West Africa accounting for almost 75% of the region’s production and shipments.

In 2019, the CBN launched a N100 billion initiative aimed at reviving the cotton, textile, and garment (CTG) value chain. A committee to revive more than 50 textile firms by the end of 2023 was instituted and has had significant successes since then.

It was also reported that the CBN initiative will help increase the production of 200,000 hectares of cotton fields by 2020 and maintain an annual increase of 100,000 hectares over the next three years.

Unfortunately, the numerous interventions from the CBN and the ministry of agriculture and finance have yet to yield expected results as cotton production still remains remarkably low when compared to other African countries like Burkina Faso, Benin, Mali, and Côte d’Ivoire, which have seen increased output due to area expansion and government support.

One key challenge the industry faced was the absence of reliable data to help industry experts and the government make well-informed decisions that could help attract the needed investment.

Nigeria's Statistician-General said there was therefore a need to collect data that would help unravel Nigeria’s slow progress and chart a way forward.

"Unfortunately, data to measure the impact of all these interventions is, in most cases, not available, and where available, it is either not adequate or not up-to-date. Accessing them, in most cases, is also very difficult because of the way they are kept, "he stated at the signing event."

He added that "robust and reliable statistical information is needed not only to accurately quantify and communicate the impact of various public policies and programmatic interventions, but also to enable the government to measure the impact, and even provide more interventions where necessary."

Harry informed all that the strategic partnership would help in generating much-needed statistical data on harvested area, production, price, consumption, export, local trade, inventory, financing, and any other valuable data that would be relevant in driving growth.

Anibe Achimugu, President of the National Cotton Association of Nigeria, confirmed that about 23 ginnery companies are active in the country, and commended renewed government interest in the cotton, textile, and garment sectors. He also raised the possibility of a better output if the interventions are sustained.

"I strongly believe that if we sustain this intervention by the CBN, Nigeria can overtake Mali, Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, and Cameroon and produce upwards of one million metric tons of seed cotton within five years.

However, he stated that the level of insecurity, particularly in the North, has had an impact on output and is a source of concern.

"The industry is not growing as we anticipated on the back of insecurity in the North, which has affected cotton production very much."

"It is difficult to quantify how much we have lost, but we have situations whereby farmers who had already planted cannot go back to harvest their produce.

However, with this type of collaboration with the NBS, we will be able to determine the number of losses caused by this insecurity as well as the need to ensure security returns to cotton farms.

He, however, said that the farmers have been able to expand cotton production beyond the North to the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria and about 33 states in the country.

"But as you know, it is a work in progress. We need to encourage farmers to come back, and the way you do that is to ensure that you are giving the right input, particularly seed so that when they produce, they see a good yield, and then you give them a good market."