BPE, NASENI Deal on Made-in-Nigeria Products Patronage Raises Hope for ICT Sector

Emma Okonji

The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure in Nigeria (NASENI), to support Made-in-Nigeria products, has again rekindled the hope of hardware manufacturers and software developers in the ICT sector.

The deal is expected to address the problem of lack of patronage of locally made products in the country.

Director-General of BPP, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, and Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive, NASENI, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, signed the deal on behalf of their respective institutions.

According to Adedokun, “The collaboration is centred on how we can take locally made solutions off the shelf and place them at the centre of public service delivery.”

He said the MoU aimed to align policies with priorities, and give practical force to the Nigeria first policy.

Under the terms of the agreement, NASENI’s innovations, including tractors, tablets, surveillance drones, and solar backup systems, will now be actively prioritised in the procurement plans of Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) of government.

Impressed by the MoU signing between the two government agencies, President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), Dr. Muhammad Sirajo Aliyu, told THISDAY in a telephone interview that he was happy with the deal because it would boost the local manufacturing sector in Nigeria.

According to him, the federal government had in the past, released an Executive Order for the patronage of locally manufactured computers and locally developed software by all Ministries, Department and Agencies (MDAs) of government. Aliyu however regretted that such pronouncement was not implemented to the letter and therefore no action was taken to patronise locally assembled computers and locally developed software in the ICT industry.

“The Director General of BPE, this week, wrote a letter to NCS, calling for collaboration on capacity building and we are going to honour the invitation to further discuss our potential and capacity in the area of technology development,” Aliyu said.

Asked if he would discuss signing an MoU with BPE on patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products in the ICT sector, Aliyu told THISDAY that he would be happy to explore such opportunity, given the importance of locally developed products in the ICT sector.    

“Currently, the ICT sector does not have any MoU signed with BPP, but on Monday this week I received a letter from BPP, requesting for support and collaboration in ICT capacity building, and the letter was signed by the DG of BPP. The invitation of the letter is an opportunity for NCS to discuss MoU signing between BPP and the ICT sector, and NCS will explore every opportunity to achieve it,” Aliyu said.

Addressing the need to patronise locally developed software and hardware in Nigeria, Aliyu said: “Patronising our locally developed software and hardware by government agencies and by organisations operating in Nigeria, is the best thing that Nigerians can ever do because there are lots of benefits.”

According to him, one of the key benefits is that for every software that is developed locally, the developers will factor the needs of Nigerians and the needs of organisations operating in Nigeria because as Nigerians, they understand the needs of Nigerians better than foreign software developers.

“Again, most of the foreign software that we tend to patroniseas foreign software, are developed by Nigerians that relocated out of the country as a result of the difficulties they encountered while they were in Nigeria doing business. Most Nigerians will develop software in Nigeria, and they register it in U.K. or in US, where ease of doing business is far better that what is obtainable in Nigeria, and the same Nigerians will be patronising the product as a foreign-based software,” Aliyu further said.

Speaking about the implication of low patronage of foreign software, Aliyu said it has resulted to loss of revenue through capital flight and loss of jobs that would have been created in Nigeria for Nigerians.

He insisted that if locally manufactured hardware and locally developed software are well patronised by Nigerians and organisations operating in Nigeria, it would lead to increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), job creation and better economy for Nigeria.

The global software industry is a massive market with spending that reached $675 billion in 2024, according to World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Aliyu said, adding that Nigeria can tap from such revenue should there be adequate policies that would support local software patronage in Nigeria.