Textile Market Responses to Covid-19 In Nairobi County. Creating Resilience in Textile Value Chain

Abstract

The government of Kenya undertook various measures to curb the spread of Corona virus (Covid-19), including limiting movement in places with reported cases; closure of public spaces with high human traffic, such as schools and public events; dusk-to-dawn curfews; and ensuring basic hygiene and social distancing. However, these precautionary measures have had negative economic impacts on businesses and workers. The country witnessed job cuts across various sectors, and incomes of businesses and available working hours for staff significantly fallen. This paper presents a critical appraisal of the impacts of Covid-19 on textile industry value chain in Kenya. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on textile industry focusing on both effects and strategies that were employed to provide stability and resilience in the industry. The specific objectives of this study were to assess the impact of Covid-19 travel restrictions on textile value chain; establish how textile value chain was impacted by economic lockdown in Kenya due to Covid-19 and examine how the textile industry rebuilt resilience to stabilize the impacts of the pandemic. Using stratified and random sampling, this study used 160 respondents including 10 producers, 60 traders and 90 consumers of apparels. A descriptive survey research design was employed to collect data using a questionnaire and an interview guide. This study utilized both chi-square test of independence and regression modelling to assess the impacts of the covid-19 measures on production, trading and consumption of apparels. The study established that travel restrictions and economic lockdown had an effect across the textile value chain but at different levels. Among the consumers there was a significant relationship between Covid-19 and need to purchase (p-value = .002), frequency of purchase (p-value = .019) and quantity of purchase (p-value =.000). There was a significant relationship between Covid-19 measures and textile trading and production. Mask and personal protective gears were taken up by both small and large producers to cusion them from common apparel making. The study observed that textile industry was equally hit by Covid-19 and since it is a key sector for thousands of livelihoods the study reccommended that the government sets aside funds to boost the sector through loans and provide an expanded market for larger producers.