The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved 11million Euros contract for procurement of vehicle testing equipment.
This was disclosed to State House correspondents by the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga at the end of FEC meeting in Abuja.
He said the equipment will ensure that Nigeria does not become a dumping ground for outdated vehicles.
Sugarcane production represents a promising source of biomass and source of thousands of jobs for Nigerians, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, has said.
Speaking at Sunti sugar cane farms, Sunti, Niger State, Aganga said the government is reviving sugarcane crop to create jobs and increase local production of sugar cane as the economy still relies on imports.
To achieve this, he said the government intends to implement a full scale sugar programme to enable the nation produce over five million metric tonnes of sugarcane, which will far exceed the current domestic production of about 1.3 million metric toones per year. Besides, he said the government is to create about 200,000 jobs.
With the economic crisis occasioned by the fall in oil prices, Aganga said agriculture is one of the priority sectors to sustain the economy.
He said that is why the government is pushing ahead with efforts to revivesugar cane crop to tap demand for molasses, biofuel and other derivatives.
While reiterating the commitment of the government to reduce sugar importation, the minister said he is pleased with the efforts of private sector organisations such as Flour Mills of Nigeria to establish large scale sugar farms such as Sunti, adding that the government is determined to implement the National Sugar Master Plan (NSMP), since it is a core component of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan to create jobs, generate wealth and enhance economic growth.
The minister said developing the sugar sector is clear, and the sugar master plan is the roadmap. In a bid to address the energy shortage affecting the country, he said the government will support projects designed to use sugarcane for bio-electricity plant and ethanol for export.
According to him, the project will make a huge difference to the Sunti communities, as well as creating stable income for farmers involved in the sugar cane supply chain.
Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment Dr. Olusegun Aganga has said Nigeria would stop importing petroleum products by 2018, if things worked as planned.
He spoke as a guest lecturer on the topic: “Emergence of Nigeria as Africa’s leading economy: Challenges for the future” at the sixth convocation lecture of Bells University of Technology (BELLSTECH) Ota, Ogun State.
The minister said: “If things go as planned, by 2017/2018, Nigeria will stop importing petroleum products because we have over 44 other solid minerals in commercial quantity and rich human resources to sustain us. Nigeria is on the road to unparallel change; the likes that we have not seen in this country before. Over the last five years, we have done well; we have never had it this good.”
Saying that the 2014 rebasing of Nigeria economy had helped tremendously as the country is now the 26th largest economy in the world and the largest in Africa, Aganga said the nation’s economy now accounts for more than 75 per cent of all of ECOWAS.
He said: “I can say to you confidently that we are indeed a blessed nation. Just consider that we achieved all this despite the constraints we face like electricity and electricity makes about 40 per cent of production. With this, we know where we will be when we have enough power supply”.
Aganga said crude oil never made Nigeria rich, but instead made it poor because of the way the country treated the mineral resource.
The Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Trade and Investment Minister, Olusegun Aganga and their counterpart in the Ministry of Agriculture, Akinwumi Adesina, have been summoned by House of Representatives committee on customs.
They are to answer questions pertaining to the Federal Government’s rice importation policy.
The Federal Government policy introduced last year bans any form of rice importation into the country and has allegedly caused the country to lose over N300 billion late last year alone through actions of rice smugglers.
Speaking on the issue yesterday, the Chairman of the committee on Customs, Hon. Sabo Mohammed Nakudu (PDP, Jigawa) said the three ministers are to appear before a public hearing to be organized by the committee on the issue.
Letters, he said, has been written to the three ministers and other stakeholders, by the committee to inform them as well as call for position papers.
According to the lawmaker, the committee’s decision to have a public hearing was based on a House resolution on the issue which was sequel to a motion by Hon. Nasiru Baballe Ila (APC, Kano) on February 19.
The committee chair said hearing would ascertain the level of the rice importation policy, “which has caused ripples in the country and indeed cause a high loss to the government revenue.”
“He cited the African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa, which he said was over 103 years old and had remained ANC from inception.
The Federal Government has inaugurated a committee for the development of a Private Equity and Venture Capital framework for Nigeria.
Inaugurating the 19-man committee in Abuja, the Minister of Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, said the ministry was committed to building a credible and vibrant equity and venture capital sector to boost investment, provide equity capital and business development support services for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
The terms of reference of the committee include to access the current regulatory environment and legal framework for Private Equity and Venture Capital in Nigeria; provide recommendations regarding changes necessary for catalysing development of the industry to compete with others in Africa in terms legal and regulatory framework and fund administration capacity , and provide recommendations on changes necessary to either funds geared towards start-ups and SMEs or take investments in SMEs more attractive to existing funds, among other things.
Aganga said: ”We want to attract credible venture and equity capital investors into the country so that they can help to provide equity capital and business development support services to our small and growing businesses across the country.
“Our immediate objective is to develop a strategy, including a targeted and comprehensive legal, taxation and regulatory framework for further development of the domestic and international private equity and venture capital sector in Nigeria in particular, as an effective vehicle for attracting investments into Small and Medium Enterprises in order to create jobs and generate wealth for our country.
“Our long term vision is to a greater level of international investment into Nigerian businesses and entrepreneurs, infrastructure projects and the economy in general and to establish Nigeria as the leading centre for fund formation in Africa.
“This initiative is a new way of developing a new fund administration and management sector that will strategically position i Nigeria as the leading destination for fund formation in sub-Sahara Africa in terms of venture and equity capital.We have the people, the experience and the knowledge in this committee to make that happen.”
Also, the Director-General, Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms Arunma Oteh, said SEC would partner Trade and Investment Ministry to ensure the success of the programme.
She said: “We are honoured to be associated with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment. This initiative is very much in line with President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’s desire to create jobs and ensure that we have an economy that can compete with the comity of economies around the world.”
The Federal Government has expressed its determination to address the challenges of unemployment through development of a sustainable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, stated this in Abeokuta during a validation workshop on the Revised Policy on MSMEs in Ogun.
A statement issued on Friday in Abuja by the ministry Assistant Chief Information Officer, Ibrahim Mohammed, quoted Aganga as saying that the government created 32 million indirect jobs through the 17.2 million MSMEs in 2012 alone.
The minister said the government had concluded plans to create five million jobs by 2015 through the expansion of the MSMEs.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that he promised to forward a proposal to the Federal Executive Council on the need to ensure production of school uniforms from made-in-Nigeria fabrics to encourage enterprises development.
“There is no reason why school uniforms cannot be made even from “adire textiles.”
Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, acknowledged the support and cooperation the administration had received from SMEDAN.
He said the government would continue to assist genuine entrepreneurs in the “areas of provision of infrastructural facilities and financial assistance.
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Nigeria and other D-8 countries have agreed to increase the volume of trade among member countries from its current $150billion to $500billion within the next five years.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr.Olusegun Aganga, during the First D8 Ministers Council Meeting on the Preferential Trade Agreement in Abuja, yesterday.
He also proposed that the D-8 Trade and Investment Council made up of the private sector and sponsored by the Ministers of Trade be established as soon as possible.
The Developing Eight countries popularly referred to as D-8, include Nigeria, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Bangladesh, Iran, Pakistan and Egypt.
To fully maximise the benefits of trade between Nigeria and other D8 member countries, Aganga said Nigeria would develop its own country specific and regional trade strategies, which would be based on the areas where the country had competitive and comparative advantage.
The minister noted that Nigeria would work closely with other D8 countries to remove the barriers to improved and mutually beneficial trade relationship among member countries within the next five years.
Also, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, called on the Organised Private Sectors of the D-8 countries to take advantage of the Preferential Trade Agreement to boost trade and investment among member countries.
In his opening remarks, the Secretary-General of D-8, Dr. Seyed Mousavi, said that the meeting would provide a pragmatic approach towards increasing intra-trade among D8 countries.
He said, “One of the core objectives of the D8 Roadmap is to increase the intra trade of D-8 countries to at least 15 to 20 per cent of their total trade in the world by the end of 2018.
Nigeria saved N4.2trillion from the decrease in the importation of manufactured goods in 2012, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Olusegun Aganga, has said.
He made this known during the opening ceremony of the ministerial session of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment, in Ibadan yesterday.
Speaking on the theme, Industrialisation as the driver of economic development, revenue diversification and wealth creation, Aganga said the country saved about N817billion due to a decline in the importation of textile, cement and vegetable oil within the same period.
He said: “In terms of trade, we have done very well. Nigeria’s external trade fell by 4.3 per cent, from N29trillion to about N28trillion in 2012. However, the good and exciting news is that the fall was as a result of a sharp decrease in the value of import from about N9.8trillion to about N5.6trillion by the end of 2012. That was a decrease of about 43 per cent in savings of more than N4.2trillion, which has gone to the increase in the foreign reserves of our country.
“The last time that we had such a big fall in import, for a country that is largely import dependent, was in 2008 and that fall was about N1trillion. This shows in real sense, a decreasing over-reliance on import for domestic consumption and a significant savings on our foreign exchange. That is why foreign exchange is going up.
“Specifically, for vegetable oil production, import fell from about N1 trillion to about N577billion; textile imports fell from about N190 billion to N94 billion , representing about 82 per cent decrease; while cement import fell from about N219billion to about N27billion. In total, these three sectors only contributed to more than N817billion to our foreign reserves because we are less dependent on import.”
The minister noted that the country also recorded significant improvement in non-oil revenue earnings within the last seven years with the non-oil sector accounting for 30 per cent of the nation’s revenue earnings in 2012, as against 15.5 per cent recorded in 2005.
He said: “Now, if you look at our exports, it has gone up by 15.5 per cent, from about N19.4 trillion to about N22.4 trillion in 2012. In terms of oil and non-oil revenue, in 2005, oil revenue contributed about 94 per cent of our foreign earnings while the non-oil sector contributed only six per cent.
“If you look at the same statistics in 2012, the oil sector contributed about 69 per cent while the non-oil sector contributed 30 per cent.”
As part of efforts towards diversifying the nation’s economy, enhance job creation and wealth generation, the minister said his Ministry had begun the implementation of its Nigerian Industrial Revolution Plan, based on areas where the country had comparative and competitive advantage.
In his opening remarks, Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajumobi, said the state was committed to partnering the Federal Government to transform the state.
The Federal Government will ensure the growth and development of local industries through local patronage, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Olusegun Aganga, has said.
A statement yesterday in Abuja by the Senior Special Assistant to the Minister on Corporate Communications, Mrs. Yemi Kolapo, said this corrected the interpretation given to the minister’s absence at the Senate hearing on local patronage on Monday.
The statement said since his assumption of office, Aganga has been pursuing policies and programmes for the growth of the economy through industrialisation and backward integration in support of local industries.
It reads: “The Local Patronage Bill, when passed into law, will go a long way to protect Nigerian manufacturers, boost capacity utilisation of local industries, increase the productivity and export of Made-in-Nigeria goods, create jobs, generate wealth and save foreign exchange for the country.
“It is in this regard that the passage of the Local Patronage Bill, which has passed the second reading at the Senate, becomes very important to the ministry, considering the efforts by the ministry to create enough market for local industries to thrive. The ministry’s low quality representation at the hearing, as observed by the Senate, was due to a communication gap in the ministry, which is highly regretted.”
According to the statement, to fast-track the reorientation of Nigerians to patronise locally made products and also showcase the potential of the country’s local industries, the ministry, through one of its parastatals, the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN), is working with the private sector to implement its grassroots-based One-LGA-One-Product (OLOP) initiative.
This, it explained, is to serve as a complementary bottom-up multi-stakeholders development and investment platform for the creation of jobs and generation of wealth in the 774 local governments in Nigeria, besides galvanising and harnessing the potential of the informal sector of the economy.
Aganga said: “Local patronage is, in fact, one of the enablers of the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, which the ministry recently kicked off. The lack of patronage of products produced locally is one of the reasons for the low capacity utilisation and contribution to Gross Domestic Product. We are working with industries to enhance their productivity, improve the quality of their products and ensure that we significantly reduce the importation of substandard products.
“We are passionate about it because we know that no nation has moved from being a poor to a rich nation by importing raw material without a strong industrial base. We know that we must nurture new industries, supported by government incentives, until they grow strong enough to withstand international competition. These are the reasons we have taken time to develop the NIRP, which will in no time place our industries where they belong – at the forefront of inclusive economic growth and development.
“As a country, we have a large market, comprising 167 million people. We are the gateway to ECOWAS, which is about 300million people. What this means is that local patronage is very important to us as a country because we must take advantage of our large market to drive our Industrial Revolution Plan.
“In fact, local patronage is key to the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan because it will help us to increase the productivity of our local companies; reduce foreign exchange spent on importation of goods from other countries and create more jobs for our people.”
The minister noted that the President had directed the ministry to compile the list of goods produced by Nigerian companies so that there would be no reason for their importation.
“We are going to do same thing in the states by adopting the same policy. The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria is also doing the same thing. Once we complete the process, nobody will be allowed to import those things we produce into the country, especially in areas where we have comparative and competitive advantage,” he explained.
THE Senate yesterday berated the Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, for lack of commitment to local production and consumption of goods and services.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Investment, Dr Nenadi Usman (Kaduna South), spoke at a public hearing in Abuja. The hearing was on a Bill for an Act to make it mandatory for government ministries, departments and agencies to give priority to local manufacturers and indigenous companies in the procurement of goods, works and services and to prohibit the exclusion of locally produced goods in the procurement process and for other related matters.”
Senator Usman lamented that despite the importance of the proposed Bill to the nation’s economy, Aganga chose to make his presentation by proxy.
She said: “It is unfortunate that the Ministry of Trade and Investment is not here … I don’t think they know the extent or importance of the bill. A ministry that has a substantive minister, a Minister of State and a Permanent Secretary, directors and none of those could come here to submit a memorandum on behalf of itself, a memorandum that would speak on behalf of the Nigerian people.
“Today, they sent a Deputy Director, Dr. Francis Alaneme, to come here. That shows the importance they have attached to the Bill, but I know that Nigerians are very happy with this Bill and they are watching to see the outcome and how it will affect the life of the ordinary Nigerian.”