Nigeria announces new policy to prioritise local manufacturing

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a “Nigeria First Policy” aimed at prioritising the use of locally made goods and services in all government procurements.

The Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, made the announcement on Monday, saying the policy seeks to domesticate all government processes. The Nigerian government expects that with the new policy, local manufacturers will get priority in the provision of goods and services.

“No procurement of foreign goods or services already available locally shall proceed without justification, and where there is an exceptional need for these services to procure from outside, there must be a waiver to be obtained, written waiver to be obtained by the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP),” Mr Idris said.

“Where no viable local option exists, contracts must include provisions for technology transfer, local production or skills development. For example, the provision of portal allocations under the sugar master plan should take into consideration participants’ backwards integration plans and investment in Nigeria and ensure compliance with the Master Plan.

“The MDAs have also been directed to immediately conduct an audit of all procurement plans and submit revised versions in line with these directives. Breaches will attract sanctions, including cancellation of procurement processes by such MDAS, and indeed disciplinary action against responsible officers,” the minister noted.

The federal cabinet approved these proposals on Monday and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation has been directed to prepare an Executive Order to be issued by President Bola Tinubu.

This is a major shift in government policy, Mr Idris added. “It puts Nigeria – not foreign companies, not imports – at the heart of our national development.”

Once signed into law, Mr Idris said, the legislation will “foster a new business culture that will be bold, confident, but also very, very Nigerian, and it aims at making the government invest in our people and our industries by changing how the government spends money, how we procure and how we also build our economy.”

“Going forward, Nigerian industry will take precedence in all procurement processes,” the minister said.

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Where local supply falls short, contracts will be structured to build capacity domestically, according to Mr Idris. “Contractors will no longer serve as intermediaries sourcing foreign goods where local factories die. I take the example of the sugar industry.”

“For example, we still have so much importation of sugar coming into this country, yet we have the Nigerian sugar council that was set up to look inward to see how sugar production can be produced, you know, for the benefit of Nigerians.

“President Tinubu has proposed that we will no longer just sit there and allow importation to come into this country where there is the capacity for production of these commodities locally. Now, as I said, the president has proposed the following directives, and all of them have been approved by the Federal Executive Council.”

The legislation will address the following resolutions:

The Bureau for Public Procurement, BPP, has been directed to revise and enforce procurement guidelines to prioritise locally made goods and homegrown solutions.

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The BPP will create a local content compliance framework for all government procurements.

The BPP has been directed to maintain a register of high-quality Nigerian manufacturers and service providers regularly engaged by the federal government.

The BPP has also been directed to deploy all procurement officers from the MDAs. All the procurement officers posted to MDAs will be reverted to the Bureau of Public Procurement as a line agency without jeopardising the possibility of efficiency.