The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association has said that the recently mooted ‘Buy Made in Nigeria Policy’ of the Federal Government is directly violating the African Continental Free Trade Agreement protocols, which Nigeria is a signatory to.
The Director-General of NECA, Adewale Oyerinde, stated this in Lagos on Monday during a press conference to announce the 2025 NECA Annual Nigeria Employers Summit.
The summit, which will take place between June 25 and 26 in Abuja, has been themed, ‘Enabling sustainable enterprise in a transitioning economy: Aligning fiscal, trade, and regulatory reforms for inclusive development’.
The PUNCH reported a few months ago that President Bola Tinubu approved the Renewed Hope Nigeria First policy that mandates all federal ministries, departments, and agencies to give absolute priority to Nigerian goods, services, and know-how when spending public funds. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, had revealed this to State House correspondents after the Federal Executive Council meeting at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.
Oyerinde maintained that by that policy, the government is also jeopardising the purchasing powers of the consumers, urging the government to come up with policies that would make Nigerian products globally competitive.
“By that policy, the government is doing two things. One, you are directly violating the protocols of the AfCFTA, which says we can trade within the African continent. Secondly, you are also jeopardising the consumer, whose purchasing power has also been affected directly or indirectly. If a box of chocolates costs N5 in Nigeria, and a chocolate imported from Switzerland costs N3, which one do you think I should buy, or would I buy?
“I would most likely buy the one for N3. So, while we promote buying Nigeria, then the factors that would make buying Nigeria easy, or that would make business owners, the Nigerian manufacturers competitive enough to be able to produce and sell at N3, or a lesser price, we must also provide those factors, which are basic infrastructures, power, lights, dealing with regulatory challenges,” he said.
According to him, if you don’t deal with such issues, the cost of production in Nigeria will still be high, and the cost of importation will still be less. “So, you leave the consumer with no option but to buy the imported goods, so those things must align,” he said.
Oyerinde also called on the need for the government to align its reforms to achieve a better result. “We felt all these policies, irrespective of where they are coming from, irrespective of the agency that is driving them, or the ministry that is driving them, there must be a nexus, must create a nexus between all of them for the benefit of the private sector so that this economy can grow at the rate at which government wants it to grow,” he said.
Speaking on the coming event, Oyerinde reiterated that part of the objective of the summit is to gain more clarity about the reforms from trade, investment, and industry in the whole context of fiscal and monetary reforms and build consensus around the reforms, “because, without it, it would become more difficult to implement.”
“We will now create alignment around the reforms and gain private sector confidence that the reforms complement each other. What the government has done in some sectors is to get the nation out of the woods, hoping that in the next few years, we will start seeing visible progress. What we are advocating and pushing seriously is the need to align all the policies and get a definitive consensus from the private sector. The private sector needs to make input, and our voice needs to be heard,” he stated
Earlier, the Chairman of the Summit Planning Committee, Victoria Uwadoka, reiterated that reforms are critical to achieving better results.
According to her, the reforms of the Federal Government are already paying off, looking at the state of businesses; one can project that businesses two years ago.
