Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said the Federal Government will intensify and sustain the campaign for the patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products in its drive to diversify the economy, create employment and generate wealth.
The minister stated this in Lagos on Monday at the launch of the South-West Campaign for the patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products by the Ministries of Information and Culture as well as Industry, Trade and Investment.
“One issue that is very important to our Administration is the
diversification of the economy away from oil. Boosting industrial
development, especially through the local production of goods and
services, is a major fulcrum of this policy. Patronising
Made-in-Nigeria goods and services is also key to the success of the
policy. This is why we are passionate about this Made-in-Nigeria
Campaign,” he said.
Mohammed restated the Administration’s commitment to
institutionalizing the patronage of locally-made products by
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) through the review of the
Bureau of Public Procurement Act to make it mandatory for the MDAs to
patronize local products.
He said the campaign followed the Executive Order signed by the then
Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to encourage the patronage of
locally-made products as a deliberate policy to conserve foreign
exchange as well as to boost business for Nigerian companies so they
can employ more people and earn revenue.
The minister used the occasion to appeal to private media
establishments to join hands with the government to create awareness
among the citizenry on the patronage of locally-made products.
He said he had personally undertaken a number of advocacy visits to
encourage local manufacturers and also help to showcase their
products, citing the visit to Innoson Motors in Nnewi, Anambra State,
in June this year and his commissioning of a local manufacturing plant
for Set-Top-Boxes in Calabar in October 2017.
Mohammed expressed the hope that manufacturers will key into
the campaign and exchange views with other stakeholders, such as the
Standard Organisation of Nigeria, to improve their products and
enhance their packaging so they can compete with other products while
also taking advantage of ICT to market their products.
In her remarks, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and
Investment, Hajia Aisha Abubakar, said the vision of the present
administration is to import that which is absolutely necessary for
production purposes and export only finished, value-added products.
She said in order to ensure effective implementation of the vision, a
committee has been constituted to handle Monitoring, Evaluation and
Reporting on the level of compliance by MDAs with the Executive Order
003 on the Ease of Doing Business and support for local content in
Public-Private Partnership by the Federal Government.
Foremost Juju music maestro and an Ambassador of the ‘Change Begins With Me’ Campaign, King Sunny Ade, spiced the campaign with music.
