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President Yar’Adua urges patronage of made in Nigeria goods
Oct 14, 2009, 12:10
| | President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua has directed all Federal Government ministries, departments and agencies to henceforth patronize made in Nigeria goods for all its functions and activities.
Represented by Vice President Goodluck Jonathan President Yar’Adua who gave the directive at the official launch of the Made-in-Nigeria products campaign on Tuesday, 13 October in Abuja announced a ban on the use of foreign beverages at official functions and in government offices.
He further directed that Nigeria’s foreign aid to other countries must utilise Nigerian products like “Nigerian assembled vehicles and Nigerian made blankets”, adding that all government contractors must give priority to the use of Nigerian products whose quality is certified by relevant regulatory agencies of government like Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) and NAFDAC.
“All uniforms and boots of the armed forces; Army, Navy, Air Force, Police as well as para-military, Customs, Immigration, Prisons and Civil Defence Corps, Road Safety, etc, must be sourced from Nigerian manufacturers certified by SON,” He stated.
President Yar’Adua noted that Nigeria with a population of over 140 million people has a market big enough to sustain a bubbling domestic industrial sector if only her citizens look inwards and patronize their local products.
He therefore expressed concern with the unfortunate situation in which many industries had to close shop due to lack of patronage of their products by Nigerians.
While calling for value reorientation in favour of the local products in order to develop a strong and virile industrial base, the President noted that these policy measures were aimed at boosting industrial production,
check imports and revive the nation’s ailing industrial sector, particularly the textile industry that used to be the most vibrant of the economy.
He called on the organised private sector to demonstrate a high sense of consumer patriotism by following the footsteps of the government in their procurement
programmes nothing that the campaign to buy Made-in-Nigeria products was one of the measures meant to counter the negative effects of the global economic crisis on the manufacturing sector.
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