Government should liberalize trade because most of the items said to be on the prohibition list still find their way into the country. I think it is better now that the ban on importation of textile materials has been lifted – the importer will declare it and Government gets the revenue. That is better than a situation where they are banned and yet still find their way into the country and Government continues loosing revenue. We don’t have industries producing textiles in the country now – the few ones are just there and people use them as cover to import the materials. So, to me that is self deceit. It is a welcome development by the government.
Dom Onyeka
I fully support it because the few local manufacturing firms are virtually struggling to survive basically due to poor electricity supply and infrastructural challenges. Again the raw materials for producing textiles are no longer produced in very large commercial quantity in the country. If they must manufacture textiles in the country with all these challenges, at the end the price will not be competitive when compared with the imported ones. Most of the manufacturing industries in the country have folded up if we must be truthful to ourselves. So, we are only deceiving ourselves if we say we can effectively manufacture textiles.
Ken Iyoha
Yes, I support it. At least, government can now benefit from the duty Customs will generate from it because before now, textile materials were often smuggled through the border posts and government was losing revenue. We want a situation where some other items on the prohibition list will also be allowed to come in. When that is done duty will be collected on them and it will be for the benefit of the nation. All this while, the government has given the local manufacturers opportunity to come up but they have not been doing anything, so let them compete if they can.
Frank Aliakor
I am not in support of it. With the coming of this new government, it has promised to put up a lot of things and revive a lot of industries and when you talk of reviving industries, you have to talk about the issue of electricity which the government has promised to address, and the moment that is done the local industries will pick up and it will create more employment.
Emmanuel Onyeme
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