Strategies for economically sustainable resist dyeing industries in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Nigerian textile and clothing industries is face with crisis under the pressure of influx of
smuggled second-hand clothing and cheap and poor quality of Chinese textiles. The situation
has resulted to closure of many textile industries and massive unemployment with inability of
the few existing industries to compete favourably base on price.

The study was carried out in Abeokuta among tie-dye/batik practitioners and consumers of
tie-dye/batik products with the aim to examine the challenges facing the resist dyeing
industries. The research method is divided into three: Theoretical- this involves using
secondary data from books, journal, newspaper, and the web to gather background
information; Statistical- this involves the use of questionnaire to gather primary data. The data
collected was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Scientist); and Visual- this
entails the use of images to establish facts and make judgement on the basis of the facts
discovered.

The findings revealed that the challenges facing the practitioners are multi-facet ranging from
poor educational status, lack of adequate training/re-training programmes, poor financial
status, low customers’ patronage, poor management and marketing skill, lack of adequate and
functional social amenities, low purchasing power of consumers who often buy on credit and
pay on instalment (some don’t bother to pay their debt), increased competition from
smugglers of second-hand clothing and imported Chinese textiles, poor/ no knowledge of
information technology, low access to international/ overseas markets and minimal
willingness to take risk.

Consumers of tie-dye/batik are pertinent to the study. The findings from the consumers shows
that about half of the consumers interviewed cannot afford to buy clothes monthly while
slightly more than half buy clothes on credit and pay on instalment. The industry has being
affected with change in taste of consumers, consequently one third of the consumers do not
patronise tie-dye/batik fabrics. Consumers pointed out that tie-dye/batik fabrics are not
colourfast and the designs are too common (frequently seen). Consumers also complained of
poor customers services of the practitioners.

Base on the findings, the study proposes holistic approach to the challenges. A sustainable
model of five major pillars (Continuous innovation, Customer Relationship Management,
Government Policy Support, Networking and Practitioners Personal Capacity Development)
is proposed. Absence of any of the pillar will result to sustainability collapse of tie-dye/batik
industry. Other model being proposed include establishment of an Export Centre with an
effective and efficient two way communication model; EVIPI an acronym of English words
to stimulate innovative entrepreneurial drive in niche marketing, a model for internal secondhand
clothing to revisit the pass me down clothing culture among the Yoruba and a
networking model to complement each other for development.

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