Quite a number of people are familiar with the operating cycle of the Cross River Garment Factory but what they may not know is that the idea conceived, designed and built from scratch by the Senator Prof (Sir) Ben Ayade Administration is now producing fabrics for export (internationally) under the leadership of the highly innovative and stylish Managing Director, Mr Joseph Edet.

With a combined manpower of 3,000 staff recycled to run 3 discrete sessions, Edet’s primary call since his appointment in acting capacity in April 2020 by the youth-driven Governor of Cross River State, is to supervise, organize and ensure stable functionality of the Industry for the production of the various finished textile items for the final users. In times of excess demands, the Factory runs on a day and night basis to meet requisitions from her esteemed, teeming customers.

The quality control aspect is in line with international standards and this has been made possible by the MD, leveraging on the benchmark started by his predecessors, collaborations with multi-nationals in Nigeria and around the globe to set a new dimension of clothing to meet modern innovation technology in the Textile and Allied industry.

Five months under his watch, there has been a new tech addition in order to hasten clothe making, that is, increase turn around time for efficiency. This comes in handy, especially for the paramilitary services in the country, the NYSC, the Department of Public Transportation (DOPT) in the state, Cross River State Fire Service, State Border Patrol Team and other corporate organizations of the government and the private sectors that require high quality fabric within a short time frame. The Factory with the help of modern equipment now designs and manufactures suits, Personal Protective Equipments (PPEs), Faceshields, Coveralls, Safety wears for establishments, pant trousers in very large quantities. There are also orders placed for mass production of socks (hoses) of all kinds and production and supply of general apparel for primary and secondary educational institutions nationwide.

The MD has increased production and set wholesale benchmark on a weekly target of 6,000 fabrics and a retail target of 3,000 for pant trousers and 3,000 for inner shirts and T-shirts at 3,000 bringing to a total of 15,000 production cycle weekly. This supplies are basically for those coming to the Factory for purchase. For production and shipments to other states, the factory is targeting 40 containers of socks, underwears, COVID-19 protective equipments and other fabric materials for delivery every 6 months within Nigeria and to the African markets.

At the heat of the Coronavirus Pandemic, the Cross River Garment Factory was in the frontline of the production of COVID-19 PPEs to the state and received requests for the production and supply of millions of PPEs viz fabric Helmets, Faceshield, Coveralls etc. from Lagos, Kano, Benue, Sokoto, Ebonyi and a handful of other States. The Factory is also currently at the forefront of making mega deliveries to corporations like Julius Berger, UNICEM (Lafarge) and DHL.

The Cross River Garment Factory now has two fashion labels – the Cross River Garment Factory Line (CR-GFL) and the Calaphina Label with sector specific collaborations in India and China.

In order to upgrade and sustain standards, expatriates and other local resource persons from the Textile and Allied industry have been stationed to train staff and intending apprentices to level up to professional/international standards.

The Cross River Garment Factory, which is currently the biggest in Africa is seeing to the development of resource persons and other actors in the Sector to meet international standards.

With Governor Ayade’s passion and industrialization drive to set up an alternative economy for the state, His Excellency has made it possible for multipurpose production and is set at upgrading the facility to a point where all textile demands of the Federal government are sourced from the Cross River Garment Factory.