Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has said the 8th National Assembly would use the ongoing 2017 Appropriation Bill defence sessions to engage Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) on why they should patronize locally produced goods when implementing the budget.
Saraki who said this when an American firm – Diamond Designs Limited – visited him in Abuja said such an action will assist in getting the country out of the current economic recession.
He commended the firm for keying into the buy Made-in-Nigeria initiative being championed by the Senate to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
He said: “At the moment, the budget process is on and we intend to use that opportunity to engage the MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies) to ensure that when they start implementation of the budget, they will make sure that they patronize locally produced goods more than imported goods.”
He said the Senate would support all Nigerian based entrepreneurs in the Made in Nigeria project “to see how we can create an enabling environment that will support your business so that as you grow you will provide jobs for a lot of Nigerians and thereby contribute to the growth of the economy.”
He added: “Let me commend the efforts you (Diamond Designs Limited) are making and the way you have taken this initiative and policy of ours in the Senate on the issue of made in Nigeria initiative.
“Living in America and having that belief in what we are doing here and now taking them further in providing jobs for our people who ordinarily would be unemployed because there is no demand for this kind of work.
“This is what we are talking about that the Made-In-Nigeria initiative is likely to take us out of the recession. The main aim of this is that we can produce for export and local consumption,” he said.
Earlier, Managing Director of Diamond Designs Limited, Mary Francois, said following the Made-In-Nigeria initiative by the Senate, she decided to invest in Made-In-Aba by producing American designs with Nigerian fabrics for sale in the United States. She said that the designs made from Nigerian fabrics have been overwhelmingly received by Americans.
“What we have been doing is that we have hired tailors and we are still looking for more tailors from Aba and Abuja, to make clothes in the American designs using the Nigerian fabrics. We are also opening up a shop in Aba, not only to produce our items but we also want to take some of the items from the people in Aba and market them in boutiques in the US, so that these people in Aba will have an income and have their goods sold in the US,” she said
