By Abisola THOMPSON
Stakeholders in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), has been urged to embrace local content in production of materials, equipment and services to boost the economy.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola made the call in Abuja on Thursday at a two-day stakeholders’ workshop.
The workshop on “Minimum Specification of Nigerian Content and Requirement for Labour in the Power Sector’’, was organised by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
Fashola, represented by Mr Ahmed Abdu, the Director of Procurement in the ministry, urged players in the industry to take advantage of the Presidential Executive Order five, signed by President Muhamnadu Buhari in Feb. 2018.
He said planning and execution of projects, promotion of Nigerian content in contracts and science, engineering and technology, must be done in line with the order 5.
According to him, the president has directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to engage indigenous professionals in the planning, design and execution of national security projects.
The minister noted that diligent compliance of this provision, would create jobs, develop Nigeria’s scientific and engineering capabilities, and stimulate innovation, social and economic development.
He said it was unfortunate that NESI was heavily dependent on imported human, material resources, equipment and services.
“The industry is consequently vulnerable to foreign exchange availability and rates, to the extent that contracts for gas and generation are dominated in foreign currency.
“It is time to systematically develop Nigerian capacity and content in the industry for its long term growth and stability.
“The objective is to deliberately utilise Nigerian human and material resources, goods, works and services in the industry,’’ he said.
Fashola, however, urged NERC to monitor operations of its licensees to ensure that these policy objectives of government were met.
The Chairman of NERC, Prof. James Momoh urged manufacturers in the industry to ensure quality standard in their products and services.
Momoh said the global markets in the industry was already dominated by manufacturers from developed countries, hence the need for local manufacturers to make their products cheap with high quality to attract the market.
He stressed the need for all major stakeholders and players in the industry to work together as a team to record success.—- NAN
