The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has said there is no going back on the decision of the Federal Government to ban the importation of 10 building materials into the country, to enable the growth of locally-produced ones.
He identified the affected materials to include doors, windows, tiles, ceilings, plumbing accessories, cables, paint and iron, noting that the only way Nigerians could help to reflate and stimulate the economy back to growth was for people to look inwards for satisfaction of their needs.
Speaking at the fifth National Council on Land, Housing and Urban Development, themed, ‘Building Adequate Capacity of Professionals, Artisans and Tradesmen in the Built Environment,’ Fashola said all the benefits envisaged in this year’s budget, such as inclusion and employment, would not happen if the people for whom the budget was made, abdicated the responsibility for building to foreigners or prefer foreign goods to locally made ones.
The Federal Government had in March after a two-day retreat held by the National Economic Council proposed the stoppage of the importation of tiles, Bitumen/Asphalt and others.
Meanwhile, a statement on Friday by the Special Adviser to the Minister on Communications, Mr. Hakeem Bello, quoted Fashola as saying that the ban would provide opportunity for the professionals, artisans and tradesmen in the built environment to show what they could do, build capacity and help to produce the “hundreds of thousands of doors, windows, roofing materials, gallons of paints, plumbing materials and other accessories that would be required by Nigerians.”
On the road map for Housing, Fashola, said progress had been made and that steps were being taken to complete the remaining processes, noting that the government was being meticulous in its planning to ensure that the National Housing Programme meets national acceptability.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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We will be pleased if this can be done for the benefit of Nigeria citizens and at the same time it will affect the rate of building materials in a positive way.
ReplyDeleteThank-you Minister
U are saying what you don't know.... Is dat the 1st step in right direction?.... Has the locally made building materials been kinly contested with the foreign ones in terms of quality? Do we have enough of these dat can go round (quantity)?..... What of price?.... Those are the cores that need to settle b4 completely ban products ... Go for local doors made by our carpenter and see the price & quality compare to foreign ones quality, prices are virtually the same with the foreign ones. Ask Nigerian carpenter to make shelve 4u,u will hear the price compare with foreign one and local ones are of low quality. We should work on those things b4 u can finally ban.Dont blame pple going for foreign things, u will use ur money, if u have it, to purchase quality. Let's work on the quality and make it available at reasonable prices, u will see, pple will naturally abandon foreign materials and goods.
DeleteAs long as dey can ensure quality of dese items to be locally made, it's a good initiative long overdue
ReplyDeleteThe local products have same price compared with the imported one because the wood to be used by the carpenters are also imported.
ReplyDeleteEverything in naija depends on importation. That is why the local made product is almost same price with the imported one.
This has to stop and go bak to exportation era in naija.