Africa: Shared Infrastructure Drives Africa’s Push into Cotton Processing

Shared water and power are easing factory setup costs as Africa’s textile hubs expand into cotton processing.

Growing access to shared power and water treatment is shifting some of the capital burden of African textile production from manufacturers to industrial park developers.

In some of the continent’s textile hubs, developers are providing common utilities that textile producers pay to use, reducing the installations each factory needs to finance.
Already, wastewater plants are operating in industrial zones in Ethiopia, Benin and Togo, alongside factory sites, grid connections and logistics services.

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Such an arrangement could further ease entry into spinning, dyeing and finishing in Africa’s cotton hubs, where water, energy and waste treatment traditionally added to the expense of machinery.
The model also gives developers a larger role in financing cotton processing capacity, with returns tied to attracting tenants and collecting enough revenue to maintain the shared services.

Rajeev Arora, a Kenya-based cotton, textile and apparel specialist, said shared industrial infrastructure could help connect different stages of textile production and support more sustainable manufacturing.
“Plug-and-play green parks can bring spinning and garment production together with centralised water treatment, maximising efficiency through shared infrastructure,” he said at an online discussion hosted by

Africa Cotton, Textile and Apparel Centre in last week (October).

Research by the Nigerian Economic Summit Group found that shared infrastructure can reduce the cost of industrial investment and spur economies of scale.
It showed common facilities such as wastewater treatment plants, testing laboratories, logistics hubs and transport links allow firms to access services they might struggle to finance on their own.

Currently, Hawassa, Ethiopia’s textile and apparel park, has a treatment plant designed to handle 11 million litres of wastewater a day, according to the state Industrial Parks Development Corporation. The city administration reports a 90% water recovery rate.

The plant uses a process known as zero liquid discharge, treating industrial wastewater for reuse within the park. For manufacturers, the service comes with the factory location, and its running costs fall partly on the public institution managing the zone.

A World Bank study found that Hawassa’s system cost $3.40 per cubic metre to operate. Factories paid $0.80 per cubic metre of wastewater treated. The figures, which relate to the period examined in the study, put a price on the public support behind the service.

Such arrangements appear in proposals to expand African textile production. Countries seeking to turn cotton into yarn, fabric and clothing need mills with reliable water and energy supplies, as well as equipment to handle the waste they produce.

The demands increase with the amount of processing carried out locally since cutting and sewing imported cloth requires a different set of services from bleaching, dyeing and finishing fabric. The latter processes consume water, chemicals and heat.

“New industries should recover and reuse materials and water wherever possible,” said Oluwambe Akinmoye, a Nigerian industrial designer and textile specialist.
He identified low-energy machinery, processes using less water and treatment before effluent disposal among the investments required.

The UN Environment Programme identifies wet processing, which includes bleaching, dyeing and finishing, among the textile value chain’s principal sources of climate impact. The International Labour Organization also describes the same processes as energy intensive, commonly relying on coal or natural gas burned on site to generate steam.

But shared infrastructure in textile manufacturing could become a larger part of West Africa’s investment offering as such efforts gain traction in Benin and Togo.
An International Finance Corporation review, updated in March 2026, records an operational common effluent treatment plant at each of two ARISE zones, Glo-Djigbé in Benin and Adétikopé in Togo.

“Textile operations within the park achieve an 85-90% internal reuse rate of water,” the review says of Glo-Djigbé.

That figure concerns water reused within textile operations with the common treatment network also carrying obligations for individual factories. Firms producing more heavily polluted wastewater must undertake preliminary treatment before discharging it into the system.
The International Trade and Research Centre has proposed extending this approach through parks offering common wastewater treatment, renewable power, laboratories and waste recovery services.
In an October analysis, the ITRC argued that sharing facilities could spread investment costs across manufacturers and make environmental services accessible to smaller producers.

The centre linked the proposal to the competitiveness of African textile suppliers, citing energy reliability, resource costs and the environmental information sought by international buyers.

Dr Debanjan Das, Associate Professor in the Department of Fashion, Design and Merchandising at West Virginia University told the October 22 webinar that commercial returns had varied across the six countries whose research he examined.

Ethiopian factories faced infrastructure, technology and workforce constraints, while manufacturers in Portugal had encountered buyers unwilling to pay higher prices for greener products.
“Green practices can improve environmental performance and competitiveness, but the financial returns have not necessarily followed,” he said of Ethiopia.

“Start with energy, water and waste projects that can pay back.”. He urged manufacturers to make operations transparent to buyers through production records and real-time reporting.
Hawassa’s experience offers a record of the expense involved after construction. The World Bank found that the treatment plant consumed substantial electricity, which the park developer paid for.

Its review also identified the transfer of technical skills to the developer’s staff and the terms of service contracts as issues in operating the system.
The difference between treatment charges and operating costs left the developer financing a service that factories used at a reduced rate. The bank questioned the adequacy of tenant fees for the plant’s financial viability. It cited a separate study that proposed treatment charges of $1.50 per cubic metre and sales of recovered water at $0.37 per cubic metre.

Arora proposed combining development finance and commercial loans with equipment leasing to fund new investment.
“Manufacturers can lease low-water dyeing equipment and automated looms through original equipment manufacturers and leasing firms, reducing the upfront capital required to establish a mill,” he said. Grants could support feasibility studies, technical assistance and workforce training.

Power projects at other parks remain at different stages of development. IFC’s review says the ARISE zones it assessed obtain electricity from national grids, with generators for emergencies. The company was considering renewable sources, including rooftop solar.
Adétikopé’s developer in Togo has also published plans for a solar plant serving the industrial platform. One financing option would bring in an independent power producer under a 20-year power purchase agreement.