The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to the growth and development of local industries by placing emphasis on local patronage as the key enabler of growth in the Nigerian manufacturing sector. This, according to a statement, signed by the Senior Special Assistant to the minister on Corporate Communications, Mrs. Yemi Kolapo, is contrary to the interpretation given to the minister’s absence at the Senate hearing on local patronage on Monday.
The statement said, in actual fact, Aganga had, since his assumption of duty as the minister in charge of the ministry, pursued policies and programmes directed specifically at growing the economy through industrialisation and backward integration with passionate support for local industries.
It said, “The Local Patronage Bill, when passed into law, will go a long way to protect Nigerian manufacturers, boost capacity utilisation of local industries, increase the productivity and export of Made-in-Nigeria goods, create jobs , generate wealth and save foreign exchange for the country.
“It is in this regard that the passage of the Local Patronage Bill, which has passed the second reading at the Senate, becomes very important to the ministry, considering the efforts by the ministry to create enough market for local industries to thrive. The ministry’s low quality representation at the hearing, as observed by the Senate, was due to a communication gap in the ministry, which is highly regretted.
To fast-track the re-orientation of Nigerians towards the patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products and also showcase the potential of Nigeria’s local industries, the ministry, through one of its parastatals, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, is already working with the private sector to implement its grass-roots based One-LGA-One-Product initiative [OLOP].
This is to serve as a complementary bottom-up multi-stakeholders development and investment platform for the creation of jobs and generation of wealth in the 774 Local Government Areas of Nigeria, in addition to galvanising and harnessing the potential of the informal sector of the economy.
Aganga said, “Local patronage is, in fact, one of the enablers of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, which the ministry recently kicked off. The lack of patronage of products produced locally is one of the reasons for the low capacity utilisation and contribution to Gross Domestic Product. We are working with industries to enhance their productivity, improve the quality of their products and ensure that we significantly reduce the importation of substandard products.
“We are passionate about it because we know that no nation has moved from being a poor to a rich nation by importing raw material without a strong industrial base. We know that we must nurture new industries, supported by government incentives, until they grow strong enough to withstand international competition. These are the reasons we have taken time to develop the NIRP, which will in no time place our industries where they belong – at the forefront of inclusive economic growth and development.”
He added, “As a country, we have a large market, comprising 167 million people. We are the gateway to ECOWAS, which is about 300million people. What this means is that local patronage is very important to us as a country because we must take advantage of our large market to drive our Industrial Revolution Plan.
“In fact, local patronage is key to the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan because it will help us to increase the productivity of our local companies; reduce foreign exchange spent on importation of goods from other countries and create more jobs for our people.” The minister noted that the President had directed the ministry to compile the list of goods produced by Nigerian companies so that there would be no reason for their importation.
“We are going to do same thing in the states by adopting the same policy. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria is also doing the same thing. Once we complete the process, nobody will be allowed to import those things we produce into the country, especially in areas where we have comparative and competitive advantage,” he explained.
