‘Nigeria First’, an economic policy targeted at prioritising the use of locally manufactured goods and services in all government procurements, got the approval of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Monday.
FEC, part of the executive branch of the Government of Nigeria, comprises cabinet ministers serving as an advisory body to the President, who chairs the body.
The new policy, which will soon be backed by an executive order, seeks to champion a new business culture that puts Nigeria first in all procurement processes, said Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, at the end of the FEC meeting in Abuja on Monday.
“This policy means Nigeria comes first in all procurement processes; no foreign goods or devices that are already being produced locally will be procured without a clear and justified reason,” Idris told journalists.
“Now this seeks to foster a new business culture that will be bold, confident, but also very, very Nigerian. 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,” he said.
The minister said going forward, Nigerian industry would take precedence in all procurement processes and where local supply fell short, contracts would be structured to build capacity domestically.
“Contractors will no longer serve as intermediaries sourcing foreign goods where local factories die,” he said.
The policy, he said, was in alignment with President Bola Tinubu’s objective of driving industrialisation, insulating the economy from global disruptions, and boosting local production in the country.
To pave way for the smooth take-off of the policy, Idris said FEC directed the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) to revise and enforce fresh guidelines to favour local manufacturers and service providers.
“The BPP has been immediately directed to revise and enforce procurement guidelines to prioritize locally made goods and homegrown solutions. It has also been directed to create what is called a local content compliance framework for all government procurements,” he said.
Furthermore, the BPP was also directed to maintain a register of high-quality Nigerian manufacturers and service providers regularly engaged by the Federal Government.
He said the BPP was also 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 jeopardizing the possibility of efficiency”.
