FG pledges local content in contracts, urges competitiveness

The Federal Government has pledged to promote local content in contracts as well as in science, engineering and technology. The government also urged engineers to key into competitiveness in the country.
   
The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, who stated this at the 42nd Annual Conference of Association For Consulting Engineering in Nigeria (ACEN), in Abuja, noted that lack of functional infrastructure has slowed down the economy.
 
Osinbajo also argued that the adequacy of this would determine a country’s success or failure in diversifying production, coping with population growth, poverty alleviation and environmental conditions.
 
“This is because a meaningful infrastructural development is no doubt the path to the enhancement of the standard of living of the people, and to achieve it, we must adopt engineering as the bedrock,” he said.

Earlier, ACEN President, George Okoroma, said: “We are looking at how the economy can be recovered, and it is only engineers that can lay the foundation for the growth.” 
 
He stressed that the government patronising foreign engineers was unfair to the Nigerian counterparts, blaming the trends on the policy makers who are not willing to engage them in government projects.