EVALUATION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES OF COTTAGE TEXTILE PRODUCERS IN SELECTED CITIES IN SOUTH WESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Cottage textile practitioners in South Western Nigeria are faced with loads of problems and these have hindered the economic and social development of the people leading to increase in price of products and services, high cost of raw materials, importation of poor materials, low level of quality, inadequate apprentice and low patronage, which could partly be responsible for their socio-economic retrogression. This study examines the socio-economic activities of cottage textile industries in selected cities in south western Nigeria with a view to developing approaches towards improving the operation of the industries. It was found that socioeconomic factors like low income, unemployment, access to loans positively and significantly affect the patronage of the products of cottage textile industry, the cottage industry contributes positively but insignificantly to the economic development stern in Nigeria, they contributes positively and significantly to the social development of the South Western Nigeria, lack of managerial skill has a negative and significant effect on the operations of textile cottage industry and government progammes have a positive though insignificant effect on the development of the cottage industry in the South Western Nigeria. The study used primary and secondary data sourced from structured questionnaire and an in-depth interview. The Multi stage sampling technique was adopted in selecting the representative sample for the study. The descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics used include means values, minimum and maximum values and standard deviation values while T-test was used for the inferential statistics using STATA 14.0 computer statistical package. The first summary of findings is socio-economic factors positively and significantly affect the patronage of the products of cottage textile industry in the South Western Nigeria, secondly, the cottage industry contributes positively but insignificantly to the economic development of South Western Nigeria; thirdly, the cottage industry contributes positively and significantly to the social development of the South Western Nigeria, fourthly, lack of managerial skill has a negative and significant effect on the operations of textile cottage industry in the South Western Nigeria and lastly, government progammes have a positive though insignificant effect on the development of the cottage industry in the South Western Nigeria. It was concluded that there is high patronage of cottage industry products, and that socio-economic factors play a role in it, and recommendations on how to effectively and efficiently manage their businesses were made for the government and the practitioners.