The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, on Thursday, March 10, 2022, stated that the Commission was willing to work with stakeholders in blocking revenue leakages and ensuring accountability in the Cotton, Textile and Garment industry.
He stated this when the leadership of the National Cotton Association of Nigeria, NACOTAN, led by its chairman, Anibe Achimugu paid a courtesy visit to the Commission in Abuja, according to a statement by Wilson Uwujaren, Head, Media & Publicity.
Bawa, who spoke through Director of Operations of the Commission, Abdulkarim Chukkol, emphasized the importance of the cotton industry to the economy of Nigeria.
“There is no doubt that the cotton industry plays a vital role in the economy of this country. The Commission aligns with you and anything that has to do with revenue leakages, EFCC is always interested to partner, to see that we shore up the revenue base and to also try to block the leakages.”
“Collaboration is key in everything that we need to do to achieve result, the collaboration has already started but all we need to do is strengthen the partnership”, the statement quoted the EFCC Chair as saying.
Earlier, the Chairman of NACOTAN, Anibe Achimugu said that the Association was in the Commission to facilitate collaboration with the EFCC. He said the sectoral association looks forward to the creation of an Inter- Agency Task Team to deal with challenges buffeting the sector especially revenue leakages. He advocated the adoption of the Track and Trace model already being applied by the EFCC in the oil and gas sector to the Cotton, Garment and Tailoring sector.
“We are looking to see how we can facilitate an inter-agency task team for the cotton, textile and garment sector. We believe that identification of the key players and bringing them together under one umbrella would enable this target of pushing this CTG sector to be a major contributor our Nigerian Economy,” he said.