FG reiterates commitment to growing Made-in-Nigeria market

Report from Ministry of Trade and Investment, Abuja. 

The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to growing the Made-in-Nigeria market in line with the determination to create more jobs and generate wealth for Nigerians.

The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga said Government’s policy on made in Nigeria products, which gave priority to the patronage of locally-made products, will, among many other benefits, help curb the waste of foreign reserve on what could be manufactured in the country.

Aganga spoke during the inspection of the Secure ID production plant for smart cards in Lagos. 

He said, already, the launch of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan by President Goodluck Jonathan had kick-started the diversification of the economy and revenue source of the country since 2012.

“Our approach has always been value addition, using local content, which had resulted to $14 billion investment into the oil and petrochemical industry.  We have created a gas industrial park in Delta State mainly to provide a source of raw materials in the petrochemical sector.”

He added, “The beauty of NIRP is that it looks into the areas of competitive and comparative advantage and focuses on how to reduce the cost of production and make products produced in the country more competitive and easier for Nigerians to afford.”

The Minister also pointed out that, to boost industrial development, tariff adjustments were only being done on sectoral basis, stressing that tariffs to individual companies had been stopped since 2011.

The Chairman, Secure ID, Adedotun Sulaiman urged Government to review upward the tariff on importation of finished sheet, smart cards and magnetic stripe to enable them compete better with imported finished products, while calling for a downward review of import duty on raw materials to five per cent.