Buhari declares Mondays, Wednesdays as days to dress in made-in-Nigeria garments
Nigeria’s president Muhamadu Buhari has declared Mondays and Wednesdays as days to dress in garments made-in-Nigeria for all his countrymen.
The directive aimed at popularizing Nigeria’s heritage and boosting the local fashion industry in Africa’s largest economy was adopted at a federal executive council meeting.
This is how the new directive from president Muhamadu have Nigerians look like for at least two days in a week.
These brightly coloured fabrics tailored locally are already famous here mostly for important ceremonies and quite often they make for every day dress codes.
But now the president wants Nigerians to dress in them twice a week for a different purpose. His plan is to stimulate local enterprise and cut expenditure of dollars on non-essential imports.
The directive is not mandatory but its seems to have had an immediate effect on some local businesses here.
Former banker turned- tailor Paula Simon has been in the clothing business since 2010. She considers the directive as her best gift from the government.
“This is a very good initiative. It has actually been able to boost my customer base. Like today I had about 15 customers walk in, in a space of three hours you know which normally not the case is on Monday. It is normally not like that but because I actually put up a sale today so that I can have people come in but I have had a lot of customer come and that has actually has boosted my income” Said Paula Simon, Tailor
Nigeria is by far the biggest market for textile in Africa-the country spends over $4 billion annually on imported textiles and ready-made clothes.
Textile used to be the second largest employer in the late 80’s with over 350,000 people working in the industry. But the industry was overshadowed during the oil boom.
Today most textiles now lie in ruins. President Buhari, himself known for his preference for locally made clothes, now believes the secret to reviving those industries lies in diverting local demand towards locally made clothes. And out in the streets, many are already buying into the president’s plan.
“It will make our tailors here in Nigeria to be more active in their work. They will now have more volume of work to do. It will help our economy.” Said Amah Kalu, Fashion Director, Amah-Kay Garments
“Colourful and edgy-best describes made in Nigeria clothes like this one I am wearing.
The home tailored outfits are already popular. Certainly, the best products to push if you want to drive interest towards locally made products”
