MAN: Improved Patronage of Local Products’ll Boost Industrial Devt, Economy

Akinwale Akintunde

President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs has said an improved patronage of locally manufactured products would facilitate industrial development and economic growth in the country.

Jacobs said patronising Made-in-Nigeria products would not only enhance the productivity of local industries, but as well reduce social ills and improve the well-being of the Nigerian people.

Speaking on the theme, ‘Corporate Governance and Economic Sustainability in Nigeria: A case for Made-in-Nigeria Products’ at the Executive Breakfast meeting of the Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria (SCGN) held in Lagos recently, Jacobs said good Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Corporate Patriotism can lead to economic sustainability in Nigeria.

According to him, “corporate organisations need to enshrine in their corporate governance procedures and policy, provisions that would support patronage of Made-in-Nigeria products.”

“In doing this, they will contribute to the growth and development of all facets of the economy, industrial, financial and government sectors, which will entrench economic sustainability in the country”, he said.

The MAN President noted that the economy would function better if all economic participants see the development and sustainability of the economy as a unified goal and play supportive roles to achieve it.

“Evidence has shown that organisations function more efficiently when they are system-based, that is, if the various sections and departments recognise their mandates, roles, deliverables, processes and procedures and are unified in pursuing the organisational goals. An economy will function better if all economic participants see the development and sustainability of the economy as a unified goal and play supportive roles to achieve it.

“Corporate organisations will meaningfully contribute to achieving this objective if they patronise Made-in-Nigeria products, while the benefiting companies, will naturally be financially strengthened and this would lead to expansion in their volume of activities and an increase in their employment.

“It will also generate more income to the government, while inter-industry patronage of locally manufactured products (finished and intermediate goods) would help to strengthen the growth of local industries and galvanise domestic inter-industry cooperation to improve local raw-materials and intermediate goods utilisation”, he added.

Jacobs therefore called on corporate organisations to patronise each other as a way of boosting the economy, while government should encourage Nigerians to change their orientation towards locally made products by looking at them more positively.
He also recommended that government should encourage Nigerians to change their orientation towards locally made products by looking at them more positively.

“Corporate organisations should jointly establish a platform that will enlighten the general public on the need to jettison the current penchant for foreign goods and patronise locally manufactured products”, he added.

Earlier, Chief Executive Officer of the Society for Corporate Governance Nigeria, Mrs. Hilda Nkor said the meeting was aimed at unveiling the relationship between corporate governance and economic sustainability as well as the promotion of the utilisation of socio-economic resources to their best advantage and the use of these resources in an efficient and responsible manner that provides long-term benefits and establishes profitability for a business.

Patronage of made in Nigeria goods has been identified as one of the strategies employed by the present administration to promote local production, generate internal revenue and ensure adequate employment for teeming unemployed citizens around the country.

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