National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has stressed the need for Nigerians to patronise locally made products and depend less on imported goods.
The agency also expressed the determination of the federal government to make Nigeria to be more of a producing nation than a consuming country.
The deputy director, Engineering, NASENI, Engr Joseph Oladimeji, stated this in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital during the agency’s strategic meeting on made-in-Nigeria products with the theme, “Made in Nigeria for Everyone.”
Oladimeji explained that part of NASENI mandates is to promote local technology as no country could be successful without technology.
He said, “It is to make people to be aware of the fact that Nigerians have the capacity to make made in Nigeria goods. Part of our campaign is local technology; no nation can thrive without technology. We are out to make people aware that there is the need for us to patronise made in Nigeria goods.
“Nigerians have the capacity, the expertise and the resources. So, why are we not patronising made in Nigeria products? If Nigeria must take its rightful place in global technology, it begins with you and I.
“The present administration under the leadership of President Bola Tinubu is ensuring that Nigerians don’t depend much on imported goods. We know Nigeria as a consuming nation but that mindset needs to be changed. We want to be a producing or manufacturing nation and be exporting our goods. How can we do that? Needs have been put in place by NASENI in the areas of collaboration, creation and commercialisation. There is a need to rob minds with the stakeholders as the government cannot do it alone.
“There have been fora where entrepreneurs are invited for exhibition to know things being produced. We are open for collaboration with the SMEs. We train them and build their capacity in all our 12 centres spread across Nigeria.
“Primarily, we are training the SMEs and the processes/ the products are seeded out to them so that they can mass-produce in an environment that is thriving,” he said.
Engr Oladimeji said the agency was established basically to promote and develop science, technology and engineering infrastructure in the country as well as to address various changes and needs in Nigeria’s scientific and technological development.
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