Senate passes bill compelling government to buy made-in-Nigeria products

By Sylvester Ugwuanyi on June 16, 2016

The Upper Chamber of the National Assembly on Thursday passed into law the Public Procurement Act 20‎07 (amendment) bill 2016, which makes it mandatory for government agencies to patronize made-in-Nigeria goods.

The Act, which seeks to promote local content, is one of the priority bills of the Senator Bukola Saraki-led Senate.

Speaking after the consideration of a report on the bill, Saraki insisted that more patronage must be accorded local goods, stressing that, “in stimulating our economy, we all have a role to play to ensure that the executive complies especially in the area of giving first priority to locally-produced goods.

“This has helped many countries to develop when they had issues of downturn in their economy. I believe that having over N3trn available to stimulate local production going on now.

“One of the things that we have done today is also trying to shorten the process of awarding contracts; this will go a long way in helping budget implementation.

“It would go a long way in ensuring that most of the funds are available as quickly as possible and jobs are actually completed. I want to commend my colleagues for passing this bill‎.”