A bill seeking the patronage of locally manufactured items in Nigeria got endorsement of senators, yesterday, as they unanimously passed it second reading.
The bill, tagged :” A Bill for an Act to amend the Public Procurement Act to provide for and adopt a Local Content Policy and timely completion of procurement processes,”was sponsored by Senator Sam Egwu, PDP, Ebonyi North. Egwu, in his lead presentation during debate on the bill, said the bill sought to amend an existing Procurement Act to place a tag on percentages of certain locally made products to be purchased by government ministries, departments and agencies.
He added that the amendment of the act had become necessary, in view of the need to encourage Nigerians to patronise locally made goods.
He said until the act was amended, there would be a gap between the consumption of locally made goods and foreign goods. According to Egwu, when the bill is passed into law, Ministries, Agencies and Departments, MDAs, will be mandated to purchase certain percentage of made-in-Nigeria goods.
He said: “The Federal Government spends billions of naira to import cars into the country when Innoson Motors and other local manufacturers are not being patronised.Ministries, Agencies and Departments, MDAs.
We have all the raw materials, we also have the biggest market in Africa, yet we saturate our market with foreign goods. “The amendment of the bill will go a long way in developing Nigeria to become a world class producer. We should not forget that the love for foreign goods is responsible for the level of unemployment we have in the country today.” The legislator commended the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, and other lawmakers for patronising Innoson Motors and other locally made goods.
He urged other lawmakers to toe the path of the principal officers by patronising local products.
source: nigerianeye
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