Contracts Award: FG to Give Priority to Local Firms

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

Federal Government has promised to soon unveil some incentives to Nigerian firms in an effort to boost indigenous technology and encourage local entrepreneurs.

While delivering a keynote address at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and 2017 Conference of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) on Tuesday, in Abuja, Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, also stated that expatriate quota visas will henceforth not be granted to foreign firms at will where Nigerian professionals abound.

He said in case, expatriate quota is given to foreign firms at least 3 Nigerian professionals must be made to work with them from conceptualization to commissioning of the project so as to develop local capacity.

According to the Minister, Nigerian firms and companies are now to be given priority in the award of contracts.

He called on Nigerian engineers to utilize their skills in view of the prevailing global revolution which put premium on engineering in economic activities, noting that the richest people in the world are those who used their brain to create wealth.

Mr Onu bemoaned the paucity of engineers in Nigeria and also called on Nigerians to show interest in the commercialization of research findings as this will help us to create wealth, provide jobs, reduce poverty as well as stop capital flight.

The Minister also disclosed that the recently-launched Science, Technology and Innovation roadmap 2017 2030 will trigger industrialization and promote competiveness in raw materials to add value to our raw materials and guidelines that will guide our projects and contracts.

He also said that with the national strategy to promote competitiveness in raw materials, about N3 trillion would be saved by the Federal Government, adding that capital flight would be drastically reduced.

Earlier in his opening remarks, the President National Society of Engineers, Engr. Otis Liver Anyaeji called on the federal government to unbundle some ministries so as to make government business more effective.

He also called on the federal government to formulate and implement policies on agricultural mechanization, noting that development starts with infrastructural growth.