Senegal: Locally produced fabrics
for the garment industry

Senegal has a long tradition of industrial textile production. As recently as the 1980s, around 20 companies were active in this sector. But the labour-intensive industry, which once covered all stages of the value chain from cotton cultivation to spinning and sewing, has gradually been pushed aside by imported fabrics. Most of these come from India, Pakistan, or China. In Senegal and other countries in West Africa, clothing manufacturers and tailors can hardly use raw materials from domestic production anymore. Although Senegal is still an important producer of high-quality cotton fibres, almost the entire harvest is exported because there are no longer domestic buyers what could spin the cotton fibre into yarns and fabrics for the textile industry. This has led to a massive loss of jobs over the years.

But interest in local production is growing and customs barriers are gradually being removed. A new, more attractive market environment is emerging. The technical know-how to produce high-quality textiles is still partly available in the country, but to exploit the sector's potential again, new workers need to be trained and introduced to modern production methods.

The Senegalese company Domitexka, founded in 2010, specialises in textile production for export. In 2018, the company took over a disused factory in Kahone, thus launching a promising new stage in factory’s development and further consolidating its role in the local economy. The newly acquired factory will resume spinning and weaving. Fabrics will also be produced by another company that has not operated for several years.

The financial support provided by the Facility Investing for Employment (IFE) will help Domitexka to renew the plant and the equipment that has become obsolete and thus achieve its production and marketing targets.

In this context, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH provided technical assistance to Domitexka to help it relaunch its activities by carrying out an inventory of existing equipment, defining investment requirements and determining the overall cost of the investments needed to relaunch the plant's activities fully. Domitexka qualified for financial support from Invest for Jobs as part of the first call for proposals that IFE had conducted in Senegal in 2021.

The financial support from Invest for Jobs will enable Domitexka to create 2,100 new full-time jobs at the Kahone site within three years of the completion of the investment phase. All newly hired staff will be trained for their jobs. Among other things, the company has entered a partnership with the Senegalese Ministry of Labour and a local vocational training centre. During the conversion period and the first three years of production, 750 newly hired staff members will be trained to operate the more modern machines.

Several companies in the textile sector have declared their intention to buy the fabrics produced by Domitexka and use them for further processing. The future buyers and suppliers have promised to create an additional 2,200 jobs. The entire value chain in the textile sector is expected to benefit from the resumption of production in Kahone – from design to tailoring to trade.

As part of the conversion and modernisation of the factory, Domitexka plans to invest a total amount of 13.59 million euros between 2024 and 2026. IFE grants a subsidy of 5.70 million euros (42%). The funds will finance The following investments:

• Purchase of various machines, equipment and parts needed to repair and/or modernise the existing production lines (spinning, weaving, knitting, printing and dyeing);
• Modernisation of the existing wastewater treatment plant;
• Replacement of the old wood-fired boiler with a biomass boiler (using peanut shells purchased from local producers).

The Facility Investing for Employment (IFE) of KfW Development Bank is part of the Special Initiative "Decent Work for a Just Transition" of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). With its support, the Facility wants to remove barriers that prevent the creation of new and better jobs in the private sector in the African partner countries.