Following the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki’s visit to the "Made in Aba” Trade fair on the 8th of February, 2016, an event aimed at showcasing and promoting local products that were made in Aba for Nigerians by Nigerians using local raw materials, I decided to write this article to highlight ways by which we can as Nigerians promote and improve our local industries and entrepreneurs

During Saraki’s visit, he made a strong statement in support of these creative and hardworking group of Nigerians (entrepreneurs), promising them that the 8 Senate would work towards amending the Nigerian Procurement Act to ensure that locally produced good are given high priority over their foreign substitute in the procurement process. A look at his Facebook page reveals his own written words:



Knowing full well how many of us Nigerians have lost hope and trust in our politicians, we can only pray and hope that this promise made is taken seriously and implemented. But am sure just the implementation of this promise won’t boost the local production industry or will it regain the trust of Nigerian consumers in local producers or products?

We know that over time we have grown to lose trust in locally produced products because of various experiences and events, such as:

The ability of locally produced goods/wares to stand the test of time
Are made with low-quality raw materials with no quality assurance/control
It is rare to get after-sales support for purchases or impossible to return items which go bad after you have paid for it (even if you are still at the point where you bought it, it will be difficult to return it after payment is made)
These products are expensive given the fact that they are locally made and of poor quality
Most of these products are faked or just bad copies of an original product, repackaged and rebuilt
I have a strong feeling that both consumer and producers confidence in the local market can be improved and enhanced through the following strategies if implemented and well executed:

Consumer Protection and Producer Control

I will use an example of the Brazilian Consumer Protection Act (PROCON – Defesa Do Consumidor). Here we can see that Brazil has been able to set up a government body that defends consumers against producers and their products with objectives such as:

Consumer education and exposure
Consumers and Producers issue resolution (after-sales)
Prosecution and execution of justifiable measures where any between both parties
Qualitative and quantitative research of producers and their products; and many more
If this can be implemented in Nigeria, it will go a long way to improving the consumer’s confidence; knowing full well that my interest, safety, and quality assurance is protected, I would gladly purchase local goods.

Same applies to the Producers, there is also a need for a body that controls their production activities (pre to post-production) – ensuring that they follow laid down quality guidelines, control of product prices, and many other control measures, will ensure that no producer abuses his clients or can do whatever he feels like (as it is the practice today), doing this would enhance healthy competition within producers in terms of quality of their products and customer satisfaction as these will be key ways in which they can acquire and keep clients

Consumer education and incentivisation

There should be continuous education (formal and informal) of the consumers highlighting how patronizing locally made products improves the country and various aspect of the economy. If enough education and communication is adopted in this regard it will improve consumer’s believe, consumers need to know why and how buying a Made in Aba product can improve the economy and how it can lead to increase in employment and foster entrepreneurship; this can also help the producer improve on quality of his product (after-sales feedback effect). This education can be done by high quality/educational propagandas and adverts. More reality shows or series that focus on improving local consumption and production

Public and Private Support for Genuine and Serious Producers/Entrepreneurs

Sakari’s promise would be a huge boost for the producers at the Trade fair and will go a long way to spur them on, but it must not stop there, there must be follow-up and implementation. Also, there should be other incentives provided to assist producers;

Providing financial support: Government can grant little or no interest loans to genuine and serious-minded producers with long-term payment plans. Our private banks should be implored/encouraged to be part of this process. We need to provide them access to financial facilities to enable them to set up and also reduce the rate at which they seek profit instead they concentrate on quality production and providing employment and increasing production capacity

Economic Policies and Infrastructures: Government have to make and continue policies that support indigenous producers;
stop the importation of items that can/should be produced in the country
make Forex easily accessible to producers, if possible (which I know it is)
provide low-cost lands to enable them to build their factories, or possibly provide lands to them on a rental basis.
Infrastructures such as Electricity can be improved and priority is given to industrial areas, these will lessen the cost of production
Road maintenance and networks need to be improved
Reduce Police interference on the roads – they are meant to protect and not extort or make life difficult for road users

Tax Policies: I made this as a sub-topic on its own because the present government has proven that they are here to use taxation as the main source of generating income for the country after the fall in global oil prices. But for me, I am of the opinion that if we can have more taxable companies and industries paying bearable amounts sounds better than extracting huge amount from the few ones we have. We should enable and promote the creation of more companies and producers as a form of tax income increase rather than increasing tax levies.

Conclusion

I believe in Nigeria and the industriousness of Nigerians, we can create and we have proved that we have only over the years been drawn back by a system that does not function the way it should. Most Nigerians have traveled out and have been able to become good business owners and builders simply because the system of such countries functions the way it should. When a system functions it makes it possible that the processes described in it when followed would lead you to a sustainable end, but when a system is messed up with corruption, economic imbalance, policy fluctuations, lack of control measures, tribal differences and diversity as ours, it becomes difficult.

Let each and everyone one of us be a builder, let pro-activity drive our engagements, and those in power in public offices should understand why they were entrusted with such positions and use it to better lives.

I believe if the system functions right, the people in it would also become productive

Thanks for reading, drop your comments or ideas or drop me a mail, would be glad to share your opinions

Source: [url="http://brightonict.com/promoting-made-in-nigeria-products/"]Bukola Sakari’s Promise: Promoting Made in Nigeria Products[/url]

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