By Clem Khena-Ogbena, Abuja
The Federal Government says it has become imperative for all Nigerians to patronise made-in-Nigeria products and called on the people to always buys buy Nigeria’s locally made goods.
Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar, made the appeal in their separate speeches, in Abuja.
They made the call during a meeting between the two ministers to discuss the urgent need to increase patronage of locally manufactured goods, through the use of Executive Order E03 of May 18, 2017.
Onu, who, however, advised Nigerians to buy goods that met the required certification, reasoned that by so doing, it would enable manufacturers to embark on research, aimed at improving on the quality of products and also making Nigerian goods the best in the world. He noted that the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology was one of the lead ministries in the national economy recovery plan and growth plan 2017- 2020 to lead in this Made- in -Nigeria products.
He noted that the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology was one of the lead ministries in the national economic recovery and growth plan 2017- 2020 to lead in the Made- in -Nigeria products.
According to Onu, “We are committed to making sure that we put in our own contributions to ensure that we convert the enormous and the abundant raw materials in the country into products that our people will require, that we don’t have to rely on the importation of everything we need. We want our Naira to be strong and we want jobs for our people”.
He added, “The ministry will continue to develope appropriate technology that will help the country to convert the materials we have into appropriate product we needs. It is only when that conversion is done that it becomes Made-in-Nigeria products, because that is the only way our industrialization will be irreversible if we don’t put in our own technology we can industrialize and it can be reversed.
“With research and innovation works, we will have products that are very different from the one that the original manufacturers have, that will be more conducive to our own needs.”
Earlier, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Aisha Abubakar stated that the ministry was mandated with the responsibility of collating information from government to formulate a policy to ensure the government maximizes the use of Made-in-Nigeria goods.
Abubakar requested the ministry of science and technology to consider hosting the Technology Fairs, similar to trade expos, in order to encourage local research and development, so that scientists could come for their invention and innovations for industries to appropriate.
She further said that Industrial Participation Programme should be initiated to ensure vendors transferred technology to Nigeria, adding that local patronage unit be created to monitor all the above to monitor EO3.
Besides, industrial collaborations with FIIRO, RMRDC, NABDA and parastatals that had links with industries should be encouraged. According to her, the ministry would be willing to facilitate these industrial collaborations.
She called on all MDAs to put in place structure to actualize this objective, because according to her, “The utilisation of locally manufactured goods will lead to employment generation, increase wealth creation and save scarce foreign exchange.”
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