By Florence Israel, Abuja
The Federal Government has said that it institutionalize the patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products within its Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
Speaking in Abuja at the Media launch of “Buy-Made-In-Nigeria” campaign on Thursday, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the Federal Government was not paying lip service to the campaign, but have taken steps to actualize it.
He emphasized that made-in-Nigeria products patronage must be encouraged so as to reduce unemployment. He explained that the youths cannot be gainfully employed unless the consumption pattern is changed with view to boosting the local economy.
“The Federal Government is not just paying lip service to this buy Made-in-Nigeria. We have taken concrete steps to actualize it. It is true that the Federal Executive Council at one of its meetings resolved that the Bureau of Public Procurement Act must be amended in a manner that will give more emphasis and advantage to made in Nigeria products.
”However, we have also realized that less than 30% of government spending ever gets to the level of Bureau for Public Procurement, which means that we must start a ‘root and branch’ reform. This campaign must go down to the level of Permanent Secretaries and Ministerial approvals so that we can actually be able to encourage Nigerians, because as long as we do not encourage the buying of Made-in-Nigeria products, what we are going to do is that we are going to continue exporting jobs to other countries and importing
unemployment,” he said.
He further said that the government is taking advantage of all the digital platforms on the Internet to connect with the youths in order to convince them to take ownership of the “Buy-Made-in-Nigeria” Campaign if their future must be secured.
Alhaji Mohammed noted too that the Federal Government is committed to encouraging local manufacturers by enhancing the ease of doing business in Nigeria.
“The Federal Government is determined to ensure that we move at least 20 steps up the rank of world global standard of doing business and in the last couple of months, we have achieved some milestone. We have,
for instance, been able to achieve 31 major reforms across 8 major indicators in the area of Ease of Doing Business, starting from movement of passengers and goods to the time it takes you to register a company”, he said.
He also noted that the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) clinic taking place across the country is a deliberate strategy to make available all the stakeholders involved in the operations, with a view to easing all the bureaucratic bottlenecks so as to improve the performance of MSMEs.
In his own remarks, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, harped on the need to create a conducive environment for local manufacturers to thrive.
“It’s one thing to say buy Made-in-Nigeria, it’s another thing to make it easy for them to make things in Nigeria and to reduce the cost of making things in Nigeria. Consumers are rational and we are not necessarily forcing them. It’s a campaign, so it means that one of the most important responsibilities we have as a people and as a government is to reduce the cost of doing business; to make the cost of producing things here cheaper and more affordable,” he said.
