Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Steel Development and Metallurgy, Eyinnaya Abaribe has said that patronage of locally made goods, as well as services is a solution to the current recession.
In a statement he issued and made available to DAILY POST in Abuja, Abaribe commended the Nigeria Economic Summit Group (NESG) for getting involved in promoting made in Nigeria goods, saying their campaign would help Nigerians shift focus.
“The involvement of a respected group of private sector operators like the NESG in the campaign, which he and others started since 2013, will allow more Nigerians to appreciate the need to shift focus to goods produced locally”, he noted.
Abaribe explained that he became committed to promoting the “Made in Nigeria Trade Fair in Abuja” to showcase products from his constituents, which he said were of high quality comparable to those from abroad.
“Now, it is obvious that both as a way of saving the dwindling foreign exchange that the country earns and to also put our country in a position to promote exports, we need to turn to goods produced in Nigeria.
“That is the only way we can be self sufficient as a nation and get millions of our unemployed people to be gainfully engaged.
“There are very few foreign goods for which we do not have local alternatives that are of high quality. Our people are creative. There are a lot of potentials here. We just need to support each other.
“I advise NESG to deliberate on practical ways of providing financial, promotional and logistic supports for the local manufacturers.
“We in the Senate have moved a step further in promoting Made in Nigeria products when on June 16, 2016, we passed an amendment to the Public Procurement Act which now compels all Ministries, Departments and Agencies of Federal Government to patronize local goods and services in all their procurement.
“In fact, by the provision of the new law, it is only when there is no local alternative that MDAs can resort to foreign products.”
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