By Juliet Umeh
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has described his investment in the textile industry as the biggest business mistake of his decades in business.
Dangote made the disclosure in an interview with Arise Television, where he reflected on some of the challenges he encountered while building his business empire.
“My biggest business mistake was textiles,” he said.
According to the industrialist, the textile business eventually collapsed due to inadequate policy protection and what he described as dumping by foreign manufacturers.
“We were swamped by Chinese dumping and Indian dumping. So eventually we had to close down,” Dangote said.
He said the closure had a significant impact on workers, particularly employees of Nigerian Textile Mills in Ikeja, Lagos.
Dangote disclosed that almost 8,000 workers were laid off across the textile business, with 6,920 of them coming from Nigerian Textile Mills in Ikeja alone.
“We laid off a total of almost 8,000 workers — 6,920 workers from Nigerian Textile Mills here in Ikeja alone,” he said.
He said the experience shaped his approach to subsequent investments, stressing the need to ensure that businesses remain viable even when government protection is eventually withdrawn.
Dangote’s comments come amid ongoing concerns over the survival of local manufacturing industries and the impact of imported goods on domestic production and employment.
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