Global Textile: Onitsha Market In Nigeria

Nigeria is one of the ancient countries in Africa. Anambra state is located in the southeast of it. Onitsha is the historical port city of Anambra state, an important commercial center of the state, the second largest city in Nigeria and the third largest city in Africa, nicknamed "light of the nation", The Onitsha market is appropriately described as the business engine of West Africa, because there are a large number of businessmen from the economic community of West Africa (ECA), Abidjan, Douala, Niamey and Cotonou. The report team of global textile network specially plans "global textile market". This issue will take you to Onitsha market and learn about the textile industry in Africa.

Overview of Onitsha:

The Federal Republic of Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with a total population of 173 million, accounting for 16% of the total population of Africa. It is also the largest economy in Africa. It is located in the southeast of West Africa and the apex of the West Bank of the Gulf of Guinea.

Onitsha belongs to Anambra state, located on the East Bank of the Niger River. Its indigenous people are mainly IBO people. The textile, printing and dyeing and clothing industries in o'neicha are well developed, as well as sawmills and furniture factories. It is also an important distribution market for grain crops, oil palm products, aquatic products and livestock (cattle). It is the main commercial center in the state. It has the largest market in West Africa and the largest inland port in Nigeria. It has convenient land and water transportation. It is understood that businessmen in the region transport at least six batches of 40 metric tons of goods per year on average. Some major importers even import more than 20 batches of 40 tons a year. These goods include jewelry, clothing, household goods, industrial equipment and office equipment.

Analysis of Nigeria textile industry

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa and once had a booming textile industry. During the golden period of 1985-1991, the annual growth rate of the textile industry was 67%. In 1991, there were more than 350000 employees in the textile industry, accounting for 25% of the total number of manufacturing workers in Nigeria. At that time, there were about 180 textile mills in operation.

However, due to unstable power supply, high financing costs and outdated production technology, all textile mills have been closed except 25 textile mills which are still in operation. In 2009, the Nigerian government set up a 100 billion naira textile and clothing intervention fund, which was allocated to the textile companies in Nigeria at the interest rate of 6%, in an effort to revitalize the textile industry.

In terms of labor advantages, power development prospects and raw material advantages, Nigeria's textile industry still has great potential. "The progress we've made in our business is that we now have our own pattern designers who can draw designs and send them to China to make textiles and send them back to us," said ismaila Abdullahi, a textiles trader According to statistics, Nigeria spends about US $4 billion on the import of textiles and clothing every year, and it is estimated that the population of Nigeria will exceed 200 million, and the domestic market demand is huge.

According to the merchants who often visit Nigeria, "the relatively cheap, solid color, printed fabrics are now better sold. The local people regard red and black as unlucky, and wear these two colors less. The local government also opened a home furnishing base similar to IKEA, and imported hundreds of thousands of US dollars of curtain cloth art from Keqiao and other places in Zhejiang Province of China every year. In addition, before going to Africa, you need to go to the vaccination center 10 days in advance to get yellow fever and other vaccines, and get Xiaohuang: international certification of vaccination or preventive measures. "

Onitsha market - the business engine of West Africa:

In Nigeria, in addition to Lagos, there are many popular wholesale markets. Onitsha, the city of IBO in the East, is also a famous large wholesale city in the whole country and even neighboring African countries. Onitsha market has a very important economic and commercial position in Nigeria, where there are many large wholesale markets, the scale of wholesale is far beyond the level of Lagos.

Businessmen from Lagos, from all over the country, even from countries around Africa, will purchase here. Compared with the wholesalers in Lagos, the purchasing power of the wholesalers here is even greater. Even for a style of goods, they will purchase tens of thousands of pieces, most of them buy whole containers of goods, send them back, and then wholesale them to other wholesalers. But they will talk about the import price very low, at the same time wholesale profits will not be too high, mainly to run volume. There is a large amount of goods in circulation here. Most of the time, a container is "carved up" by wholesalers from other places as soon as it arrives. The wholesalers here are famous for their large volume, high efficiency and fast speed. When foreign manufacturers develop the Nigerian market, they often take Onitsha as the primary task to stabilize Onitsha market, which is equivalent to having a huge share of the Nigerian market.

Kano, in northern Nigeria, is the city where northern businessmen often go to purchase. The main wholesalers there are IBO and Hausa, and most of them buy goods from Onitsha.

Specific address of Onitsha Market

Textile City enterprises enter Africa

After the establishment of the Forum on China Africa cooperation in 2000, bilateral trade began to expand, which provided an important platform for collective dialogue and effective practical cooperation mechanism between Nigeria and other African countries and China. Nigeria has been paying close attention to China's "belt and road" initiative and has strengthened its cooperation with China through this initiative. In recent years, the economic and trade development between China and Nigeria has entered a fast track. Nigeria is China's third largest trading partner and second largest export market in Africa.

In recent years, China Light and textile city has actively responded to the initiative, vigorously carried out the "Silk Road Keqiao · full of the world" exhibition action, encouraged the enterprises of the textile city to go out to seek business opportunities, explore the international market, and enhance the brand image of Textile City Enterprises and the international influence of textile city.

On November 4, 2019, Keqiao District Bureau of Commerce and Zhejiang China Light and Textile City Group Co., Ltd. organized for the first time a group of Keqiao enterprises to Africa, led by global textile network, online Textile City and e-textile exhibition, 19 Keqiao district enterprises formed a "Keqiao International Textile City Exhibition Group" to Nigeria to participate in the 33rd Lagos International Trade Fair in Nigeria for 4 days, At the exhibition, the service mode of "enterprise order, government group purchase and package Exhibition" was tried out for the first time. In the way of "unified organization, unified exhibition arrangement and unified publicity", Keqiao Textile products and regional brand image were promoted as a whole to help Keqiao enterprises to explore the emerging markets in Africa. In addition, the whole tour also visited Nigeria and Ethiopia, two major emerging markets in Africa, and visited a series of business docking activities such as Ethiopia textile industrial zone and Ethiopia international textile exhibition.

Africa has low manufacturing costs, a young population structure, rapid economic growth, and strong demand in emerging markets, which is more suitable for the development of textile industry with more employment. The huge industrial complementarity makes Keqiao's trade with non textile industry keep rising rapidly in recent years.

Through the "Silk Road Keqiao · all over the world" overseas tour exhibition of China Textile City, it not only helps Textile City Enterprises "go out" to find cooperation opportunities, but also has a deeper contact with the African market, so as to increase the driving force for Textile City enterprises to explore the African market.

Up to the time of publication, the new epidemic situation in Nigeria is still continuing, and the infection data is growing. Meanwhile, according to Nigerian media reports, on July 22, local time, the number of deaths due to cholera infection in Abuja, the federal capital region, has risen to 60, and the number of suspected cholera cases has increased from 604 to 698 within 72 hours.

It is understood that cholera was found in Abuja on June 23 this year. At that time, at least seven of the 91 suspected cases died. At present, the epidemic has spread to all six local government districts under the jurisdiction of the capital, and five local government areas have seen death cases.

More than 2000 cases of cholera have been reported in Jigawa state in northern Nigeria. The epidemic has spread to nine local government districts. In the past two months, at least 30 people have died of cholera, and three people have recently died in the neighboring state of Yobe. Global Textile Network reminds business travelers to take precautions（ Wen / Dahui; Figure / global textile web gallery)