The Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, has urged government officials and Nigerians to patronise made-in-Nigeria products.
He made the call during his inspection tour of some factories located in Calabar Free Trade Zone in Cross River State.
The minister pointed out that Nigerians should patronise local products to ensure healthy supply and demand, noting that most locally made goods have ISO certification which enables Nigerian manufacturers to easily send their products outside the country.
He said: “In terms of quality I am delighted and proud that we have Nigerian companies exporting outside the country. Manufacturing is a success story, I am encouraged by the quality of their products and level of investment and the passion as well as opportunities they are creating for employment. There is still hope and there is a lot to be done and it will not take time before we achieve our goals.”
He urged the manufacturers to continue to produce quality products that would be competitive locally and globally both in terms of quality and price, adding that government would continue to create the enabling environment for businesses to grow, survive and perform well.
“The government is there to provide those incentives that would make you and your products to be competitive anywhere in the world. Your job is to bring investment and produce materials and make sure that we have products that are competitive in terms of quality and price,”he said.
Earlier, the Managing Director, First Medical and Sterile Products, Calabar Free Trade Zone, Dr. I. Nnadi, said that their focus was to manufacture a special brand of hypodermic syringe called Auto-disable (AD) syringe which was the only World Health Organisation(WHO) approved brand for safety injection practice.