OPS urges states to allocate 35% threshold to Nigerian products

The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has called on state governments to set aside 35 percent of their thresholds for the purchase of made-in-Nigeria products.

Frank Udemba , president of the association made the call at the 31st Annual General Meeting of the Edo/Delta states chapter in Benin-City with the theme, “Manufacturing without Iron and Steel complex: The Imperatives of Iron and Steel Industry in Nigeria’s Development”.

Udemba, who said the federal government has set 40 percent minimum threshold of purchases for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) through the executive order, also urged state governments to give an acceptance margin of preference of 35 percent of price consideration for locally produced products as against foreign ones.

He explained that in an effort to review the current Public Procurement Act at the federal level, the federal government introduced the executive order on improved government patronage of made-in-Nigeria products and the current build-up against smuggling and counterfeiting activities in the country.

He opined that the development would keep local manufacturing companies in production, for employment retention and creation of new ones in the midst of high cost of operating environment in the country.

According to him, When Nigerians buy foreign goods, they pay the returns to factors used in producing them in the originating countries, including wages, rent, interest and profit to foreign countries with the local resources.

He noted that government remains the largest single spender in the economy and could drive industrial development and economic growth by increasing its patronage of locally made products.

Udemba listed other benefits of patronage of made-in-Nigeria products to include enhancement of the manufacturing sector, employment creation, reduction in anti-social vices as well as peace for the populace of the state.

The MAN president also appealed to the governors of Edo and Delta state to put policies in place that would ensure the development and sustenance of the manufacturing sectors, as it provides one of the most viable and reliable routes that government can employ in creating wealth, generating employment and engendering skill acquisition.

Earlier, Alofoje Unuigboje, Edo/Delta branch chairman of the association, had decried the crippling double-digit interest rate regime under which industries operate.

Unuigboje noted that there is no other nation in the world that aspires to industrialise where interest rate is equivalent to Nigeria’s.

In his presentation, the guest speaker of the occasion, Ogban Ogbam-Iyam, opined that no country can quickly and in confidence rise to be a modern country with its people well fed, contented, protected and become united without the backbone of manufacturing and industrialisation.

Iyam, a lecturer at the department of Political Science, Niger Delta University, Bayelsa State, noted that a country that lacks the backbone of industrialisation cannot defend its people internally and against threats to security and externally against foreign aggression.

IDRIS UMAR MOMOH, BENIN