The Federal Government has made clear in no uncertain terms it impending policy reform that will see ban on imports of goods that have foreign substitutes.

The Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, made this known during a visit to Innoson Motors Manufacturing facility and Innoson Industrial Plastic Plant in Enugu and Anambra States respectively.

Aganga said, “As a country, we have a large market comprising 167 million people. We are the gateway to ECOWAS, which is about 300 million people. What this means is that local patronage is very important to us as a country because we must take advantage of our large market to drive our Industrial Revolution Plan.

“In fact, local patronage is key to President Jonathan’s Transformation Agenda because it will help us to increase the productivity of our local companies; reduce foreign exchange spent on importation of goods from other countries and create morejobs for our people.

He added, “Already, the President has directed us to compile the list of goods produced by Nigerian companies so that we will not have reasons to import those things into the country. We are going to do same thing in the states by adopting the same policy. I have already met with the Chairman of Nnewi Chamber of Commerce and Industry over this matter, the chamber will submit the list to me within the next one week.

“Also, the Anambra State governor is doing the same thing as well the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria. Once, we complete the process, nobody will be allowed to import those things we produce into the country, especially those items that we have comparative and competitive advantage.”

Seun: This is bad Economics. Most foreign goods and services have local substitutes:
- European Premier League (Nigerian Premier League)
- Calculators (Locally printed 4 figure tables)
- Guns used by the police and Army (locally made bows and arrows, cutlass)
- Wheat Flour (Garri & Cassava Flour)
- Peak/Dano Milk (Cowbell & Jago Powders)
- Aeroplanes (locally-made Canoes and Innoson Bus)
- Laptops by Apple, HP, Dell (expensive locally assembled laptops with inferior specs).
- Facebook (Nairaland)
- Google (Nairaland Search)

If you were actually to ban all foreign goods with local substitutes, you'd be banning just about everything Nigerians need and love. Nigerians will be miserable. It's madness. It's not even politically feasible. If the government pursues such a policy, the end result is that the government will end up banning goods that are produced locally by the friends of the people government. Political donors. This short-sighted policy is a recipe for institutionalizing crony capitalism.

Seun: This is bad Economics. Most foreign goods and services have local substitutes:
- European Premier League (Nigerian Premier League)
- Calculators (Locally printed 4 figure tables)
- Guns used by the police and Army (locally made bows and arrows, cutlass)
- Wheat Flour (Garri & Cassava Flour)
- Peak/Dano Milk (Cowbell & Jago Powders)
- Aeroplanes (locally-made Canoes and Innoson Bus)
- Laptops by Apple, HP, Dell (expensive locally assembled laptops with inferior specs).
- Facebook (Nairaland)
- Google (Nairaland Search)

If you were actually to ban all foreign goods with local substitutes, you'd be banning just about everything Nigerians need and love. Nigerians will be miserable. It's madness. It's not even politically feasible. If the government pursues such a policy, the end result is that the government will end up banning goods that are produced locally by the friends of the people in government. Political donors, basically. This short-sighted policy is a recipe for institutionalizing crony capitalism.

Seun: This is bad Economics. Most foreign goods and services have local substitutes:
- European Premier League (Nigerian Premier League)
- Calculators (Locally printed 4 figure tables)
- Guns used by the police and Army (locally made bows and arrows, cutlass)
- Wheat Flour (Garri & Cassava Flour)
- Peak/Dano Milk (Cowbell & Jago Powders)
- Aeroplanes (locally-made Canoes and Innoson Bus)
- Laptops by Apple, HP, Dell (expensive locally assembled laptops with inferior specs).
- Facebook (Nairaland)
- Google (Nairaland Search)

If you were actually to ban all foreign goods with local substitutes, you'd be banning just about everything Nigerians need and love. Nigerians will be miserable. It's madness. It's not even politically feasible. If the government pursues such a policy, the end result is that the government will end up banning goods that are produced locally by the friends of the people in government. Political donors, basically. This short-sighted policy is a recipe for institutionalizing crony capitalism.

iv4fb: @Seun, is this a joke? coz nairaland serach is powered by google o!

Billyonaire: Seun you are making a jest of yourself by such assertions. Every developed countries in the world understand the importance of closing the borders against foreign goods that have local subsitutes. Is premier League goods ? Seun. learn to differentiate between goods and services. If we have Dangote Cement and other local cements companies, like Ibeto, why must we import cement? Must we import noodles when we have Indomie and others ? Why import Chinese and Turkish furniture when we have local factories. Spare us ignorance and reason before you misyarn.

SimonAndal: What is clueless, pathetic and has no sense of direction?

greall1: Obasanjo try such a thing before.