MDAs not leading in use of local products like PCs, cars bad for EO3—BH survey
Latest report by the Business Hilights Economic Research team (BHERT) has show that contrary to the ongoing campaign by the federal government through the issuance of the Executive Order (EO) 3 of May 18th , 2017 to drive local contents and patronization of locally made products, many of the Personal Computers in use by the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are still foreign.
The Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, had on May 18, this year issued an EO 3 to increase patronage of locally manufactured goods.
However, undercover checks conducted by BHERT throughout the month of June on personal computer (PCs) systems in use across MDA offices both in states and at federal levels showed majority of DELL and HP and even some current orders that are yet to be delivered in the ministries are for US made DELL desk top computers. No office is yet to use Zinox Computers, Omatek or others made in Nigeria.
It would be recalled that during a tour of Zinox head office by the Minister of Communications few months ago, Alhaji Adebayo Shittu assured the chairman of Zinox, Leo Stan Ekeh that government will made his brand and others a must for all MDAs, but nothing has happened till date.
By December 2016, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) placed an advertorial on its website calling for contractors to bid for the supply of US made DELL Desk Top Computers, but less than 24 hours after Business Hilights did a report on the advert, it was janked off.
On official cars, BHERT also discovered that since Innoson Vehicles Manufacturing (IVM) started mass production for commercial purpose, no federal government officials had visited the plant at Nnewi several times but failed to place any order for purchase, rather government had continued to budget for official cars yearly and all the money was spent on foreign made cars.
But only recently, the government of Mali, broke the jinks and thought both the federal government and states a lesson, by coming to place order for 400 cars.
Earlier this week, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, minister of Science and Technology, has called on all Nigerians to patronize made in Nigeria products that have met the required certification as this will enable them embark on research that will improve on the quality of products and also make Nigeria goods to be the best in the world.
The Minister made the call at a meeting with Aisha Abubakar, minister of State of Industry, Trade and Investment, on the need to increase patronage of locally manufactured goods through the use of Executive Order E03 of May 18th , 2017 in Abuja on Monday.
Dr. Onu noted that the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology is one of the lead Ministries in the national economy recovery plan and growth plan 2017- 2020 to lead in this made in Nigeria products.
According to him, “We are committed to making sure that we put in our own contributions to ensure that we convert the enormous and the abundance raw materials in the country into products that our people will require, that we don’t have to rely on the importation of everything we need. We want our Naira to be strong and we want jobs for our people”.
Earlier, Abubakar has stated that the Ministry is mandated with the responsibility of collating information from government to formulate a policy to ensure the FGN maximizes the use of made in Nigeria goods.
