We’re institutionalizing patronage of made-in-Nigeria products — MINISTER

THE Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has said that the Federal Government has commenced the process of institutionalizing the patronage of locally-made products among its Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

The Minister disclosed this in Abuja, yesterday, at the National Media Launch of the “Buy Made-in-Nigeria” Campaign.

“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 percent 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 experience is that we are going to continue to export jobs to other countries and importing unemployment,” he said.

Mohammed emphasized that the youths cannot be gainfully employed across the country unless Nigerians change their consumption pattern by patronizing Made-in-Nigeria products in order to boost the local economy.

He said that the government was taking advantage of all the digital platforms on the Internet to connect with the youths and convince them to take ownership of the buy Made-in-Nigeria Campaign, in order to secure their future.

Credit; Vanguard