info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
info.afrindex.com
China-Africa Trade Information Service
Photo by The Guardian
Worried by the lack of competitiveness of local manufacturing companies as a result of low patronage among other challenges, the Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya A’isha Abubakar, has intensified calls for support of local industries as part of efforts to aid job creation and economic growth.
Abubakar called on states and local governments as well as Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) including organised private sector to comply with government’s procurement law giving priority to Nigerian products in all procurement activities.
Abubakar disclosed this on Monday at a stakeholder’s forum and national flag-off of the campaign for patronage of Made-in Nigeria products and services in Lagos.
She said the campaign was aimed at changing the psyche of Nigerians from penchant for foreign goods and services; re-orientate the public to value locally made products to develop a strong and virile industrial base.
She added that the initiative would encourage Nigerians to wear traditional attires to project culture, revive the textile industries and promote fashion industries among others without compromising quality and standards.
According to her, government is not unaware of the numerous challenges faced by entrepreneurs in the area of infrastructure; this has led to the signing if three executive orders by the present administration which provides specific instructions on a number of policy issues affecting the Ease of Doing Business (EDB) in the country and support for local content in public procurement by the Federal Government.
“We anticipate this would encourage the industries to produce more quality products for the Nigerian market since increase in demand would no doubt, trigger increase in supply,” she stated.
Abubakar said same strategy was adopted at varied times by many countries across the world such as India, South Korea, China, United Kingdom among others to boost their local manufacturing sector.
In order to ensure effective implementation of the programme, she disclosed that a committee has been constituted to handle, monitoring, evaluation and reporting on the level of compliance by MDAs with executive order 003 on the ease of doing business and support for local content in public private partnership by the Federal Government. The committee with members drawn from the public and private sectors will soon be inaugurated.
Earlier in his remarks, Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Lagos State, Prince Rotimi Ogunleye, said the recent country experience with the global economic crunch has been a great impetus for us to look inwards and rewrite our destiny as a nation.
Ogunleye said: “We cannot move forward and grow in the long term except we decisively promote local consumption, industrial growth and non oil export development.
He said Lagos State government had keyed into the Made-in-Nigeria campaign by harnessing the unique potentials of it teeming Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) sector and enhancing their capacities to contribute towards growing the Lagos and Nigerian economies.
Also, the Director, Commodities and Products Inspectorate, Mrs Omololu Ope-ewe during a visit of the ministry officials to The Guardian, said: “We need to motivate our MSMEs and assist them become formidable brands by celebrating them.
