NASENI Reaffirms Commitment to Advancing Made-in-Nigeria Products

The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has restated its unwavering commitment to the promotion and development of made-in-Nigeria products.

This reaffirmation was made on Tuesday by Dr. Abdulfatai Ambali, Head of the Department of Manufacturing Services at the Hydraulic Equipment Development Institute (HEDI), a subsidiary of NASENI.

He gave the assurance during a Focus Group Meeting with key stakeholders held in Dutse.

The stakeholders include industrialists, local manufacturers and technology innovators, among others.

According to Ambali, the focus meeting was convened to discuss strategies for strengthening Nigeria’s manufacturing sector and boosting patronage of locally made products.

He described NASENI as pivotal to national development and urged consumers to actively support made in Nigeria products while calling on manufacturers to uphold quality standards.

“This meeting was basically based on made-in-Nigeria products because by our mandate, we are to develop home based technology for the country and we now have what we call 3Cs, which is; collaboration, creation and commercialisation,” he said.

He explained that under collaboration, the agency partners with individuals, groups, organisations and the academia where students and lectures venture into various research works.

“Most of these research works by our students are just kept in our universities, so we are trying through collaboration to ensure that such ideas come to life to benefit Nigerians,” he said

Ambali added that under creation principle, there was skills development where series of training and innovation were established for Nigerian youths and local manufacturers.

According to him, under the principle of commercialisation, the agency is making efforts to ensure that whatever is achieved through collaboration and creation get to the market.

He noted that if local products were not being patronised by Nigerians, all investments being made by government and other collaborators become a waste, adding that it was what the agency was making frantic efforts to correct.

He said that the agency was not satisfied with the level of patronage for locally made products by Nigerians, hence the focus group meeting to create awareness.

He expressed the hope that at the end of the programme, there would be more patronage, value and improvement on locally made products.

He encouraged Nigerians to patronise Made-in-Nigeria products, while also appealing to manufacturers to ensure that their products meet top-quality standards.

“We are making sure that these products are up to standard. At NASENI we have various departments looking into quality of products, we are collaborating to ensure that these products compete globally.

“NASENI will make sure that these products have the same standard with those being imported into the country. The whole idea is stop such importation so that we rely on our own products and become self reliant,” Ambali said.

NAN