Fashion designers seek industrial clusters

The Association of Tailors and Fashion Designers (ATFAD), has called on the Abia Government to create industrial clusters to promote local business in the State.

The call followed the state government’s allocation of about 35 hectares at Umukalika community in Obingwa Local Government Area of Abia state for leather products industrial cluster.

The request is contained in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), by ATFAD’s President, Mr Onyebuchi Nwaigwe. in Aba on Friday.

“The industrial cluster system we are asking for is good for developing economies and micro, small and medium scale enterprises which plays a key role in economic growth.

“It also ensures equitable development in developing economies like ours for their contribution to employment generation, poverty reduction and wider distribution of wealth and opportunities.

“The potential role of our association in developing the nation’s economy is often not realized because of problems associated with our size and scattered businesses of our membters.

“They have difficulty achieving economies of scale in purchasing raw materials.

“It also affects our businesses by discouraging collaborative efforts in purchasing equipment, gaining access to financing opportunities and human capacity development”, the association said.

Nwaigwe said that the cluster would enable it to take advantage of available market opportunities requiring large quantity production, uniform standardization and regular supply which would boost Nigeria’s economy.

They also pleaded for a well-equipped Common Facility Centre (CFC) to train their personnel and create large scale exportable quality garments.

The group implored the government to help its members to access business funds to purchase state-of-the-art equipment and access to markets which had hindered their development for years.

The group said that if their requests were granted, the outcome would be high quality production which would increase foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria.