The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu (right) at Itoku Adire and Kampala Market, Abeokuta
By Goodluck Ikiebe
The Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Betta Edu has announced the readiness of President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to support locally produced Adire for local and international Market.
She gave the assurance in Itoku and Asero markets in Abeokuta, Ogun State recently.
Dr Edu also took time to sensitize the market women on the market monies program and other social safety net programs from the ministry.
The Minister said, federal Government will invest largely in creating jobs through the local fabrics production chain as one of the many ways to reduce poverty and improve export, that will further boost the economy and revenue for market men and women.
Edu assured the market women of the government intentions to ensure the fabric became known around the world. While reducing to barest minimum the presence of the imported imposter Adire.
According to the Minister, government programmes under her supervision will ensure the utilization of the opportunities in Adire Markets to lift millions of vulnerable Nigerians out of poverty.
“First, you must be able to push local production to meet the demand. Local production must be enhanced at all costs to meet the demand. When local products saturate the market at a rate subsided and supported by the government, it will automatically eliminate whatever fluntuate coming into the market.
“We don’t want to be selling fake Adire, made in other countries, and brought into Nigeria. What we want are the local ones made by our people to create jobs, it will build micro and macro economy and it will help Nigeria to be more of a manufacturing economy rather than an import dependent country.
“These are the things that are affecting the exchange rates and other economic indexes in Nigeria. Government will provide that subsidy for the people, so we take the fuel subsidy off the fuel, we will provide it for the Adire makers so that they can provide local Adire that will be used in country and exported out of the country.
“I was so happy when the Governor and his Commissioners said they are going to create hubs in Abuja where the original Adire would be sold. This is taking Abeokuta, Ogun State, to the world, and these hubs can be created even at embassies in other countries around the world where we can export Adire” she noted.
Dr Edu stated, “This is the original one, not the fake which is imitated and brought in. For us, if we support the local manufacturers, subsidize this for them, bring more people into this production to meet the demand, it will automatically eliminate the ones that come into the country.
Speaking further, the Minister said she and her team interaction with the state government have identified about five interventions that will really touch lives in Ogun State, covering about 100,000 persons in Ogun State. Part of what we identified was the ADIRE production, which is really very as typical to Ogun people; it is kind of their identity and what they are known to do very well.
“Adire has both the local equipment production and modern production. We’ve been to production sites and clusters and also in the market to pick up some of the fabrics and interact with the market people and Iyalojas. All are here with us. We try to find out the cost of the final product and what it sells for in the market.
“This cloth I am handling is N15,200, we have the N25,000, N75,000 in the shops. We have come here to see how it is being made locally, from the dying stage, the drying, and all of these stages that finally get to beautiful fabrics that we sell and export, ” She explained.
“The government will create new adire clusters through our schemes targeted at poverty eradication” , Edu added.
