By fire, by force; Senate passes bill compelling govt to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods

The senate has passed into law the Public Procurement Act 20‎07 (amendment) bill 2016, which seeks to promote local content.

The bill makes it mandatory for government agencies to patronise made-in-Nigeria goods.

It is one of the priority bills of the eighth senate.

Speaking after the consideration of a report on the bill, Senate President Bukola Saraki emphasised that priority must be given to local goods.

‎”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,” he said.

“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.”

-The cable