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

Nigerian textile and clothing industries is face with crisis under the pressure of influx of<br/>smuggled second-hand clothing and cheap and poor quality of Chinese textiles. The situation<br/>has resulted to closure of many textile industries and massive unemployment with inability of<br/>the few existing industries to compete favourably base on price.<br/><br/>The study was carried out in Abeokuta among tie-dye/batik practitioners and consumers of<br/>tie-dye/batik products with the aim to examine the challenges facing the resist dyeing<br/>industries. The research method is divided into three: Theoretical- this involves using<br/>secondary data from books, journal, newspaper, and the web to gather background<br/>information; Statistical- this involves the use of questionnaire to gather primary data. The data<br/>collected was analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Scientist); and Visual- this<br/>entails the use of images to establish facts and make judgement on the basis of the facts<br/>discovered.<br/><br/>The findings revealed that the challenges facing the practitioners are multi-facet ranging from<br/>poor educational status, lack of adequate training/re-training programmes, poor financial<br/>status, low customers’ patronage, poor management and marketing skill, lack of adequate and<br/>functional social amenities, low purchasing power of consumers who often buy on credit and<br/>pay on instalment (some don’t bother to pay their debt), increased competition from<br/>smugglers of second-hand clothing and imported Chinese textiles, poor/ no knowledge of<br/>information technology, low access to international/ overseas markets and minimal<br/>willingness to take risk.<br/><br/>Consumers of tie-dye/batik are pertinent to the study. The findings from the consumers shows<br/>that about half of the consumers interviewed cannot afford to buy clothes monthly while<br/>slightly more than half buy clothes on credit and pay on instalment. The industry has being<br/>affected with change in taste of consumers, consequently one third of the consumers do not<br/>patronise tie-dye/batik fabrics. Consumers pointed out that tie-dye/batik fabrics are not<br/>colourfast and the designs are too common (frequently seen). Consumers also complained of<br/>poor customers services of the practitioners.<br/><br/>Base on the findings, the study proposes holistic approach to the challenges. A sustainable<br/>model of five major pillars (Continuous innovation, Customer Relationship Management,<br/>Government Policy Support, Networking and Practitioners Personal Capacity Development)<br/>is proposed. Absence of any of the pillar will result to sustainability collapse of tie-dye/batik<br/>industry. Other model being proposed include establishment of an Export Centre with an<br/>effective and efficient two way communication model; EVIPI an acronym of English words<br/>to stimulate innovative entrepreneurial drive in niche marketing, a model for internal secondhand<br/>clothing to revisit the pass me down clothing culture among the Yoruba and a<br/>networking model to complement each other for development.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Ph.D.

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Southampton

Year dc:date.issued

2009

Author dc:creator

• Amebode, Adetoun Adedotun

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Makhoul, Bashir