By Nneka Nwogwugwu
A Kenyan textile company is setting up a $51.3 million (about Sh115 billion) factory in Zanzibar as it targets to get a pie of the world’s $920 billion textile market.
The global textile industry was estimated at around $920 billion in 2018, and it was projected to reach approximately $1,230 billion by 2024, available global data show.
With its $51.3 million factory at Chunguni area in Zanzibar, Basra Textiles Limited is specifically targeting export markets across East and Central Africa, its company chief executive officer, Mr Ahmed Othman, said yesterday.
It is hoped that the factory, which was launched by President Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday, will give a new impetus to Tanzania’s textile industry, which has the potential to become a significant sourcing location for foreign buyers.
Tanzania, which also enjoys a duty-free market access to the United States through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) as well as to the European Union, is unfortunately importing most of its textile requirements mainly from China, India, Pakistan and Korea among others, official data show.
The country’s few locally-processed fabrics (Kitenge and Kanga) are used by domestic users and also exported to neighbouring countries of Kenya, Rwanda, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo as well as to China.
