•Wants MDAs to allocate 65% of annual procurements to local firms

Dike Onwuamaeze

The President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has called on the federal government to back the ‘Nigeria First’ Policy with a legislation that would institutionalise its implementation.

Dangote also called for the amendment of the Public Procurement Act in order to embed the Nigeria First Policy in its public procurement process.

He made these calls yesterday in Lagos when he delivered the 5th Adeola Odutola Lecture with the theme: “Nigeria First: Prioritising Patronage of Made in Nigeria,” which was part of the 53rd Annual General Meeting of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN)

He also said that the Nigeria First Policy must remain predictable and consistent in order to inspire long term investment, and warned that its gains would be lost if its enforcement is weak.

Dangote, who was represented by the immediate past President of MAN, Mr. Mansur Ahmed, said that the Nigeria First Policy represents a bold opportunity to industrialise sustainably, stressing that its success depends on clear legislation, institutional enforcement, stable policy implementation and strong alignment across government agencies and industry.

He also said that for the Nigeria First Policy to work, it must be designed as a durable, binding national strategy for industrial development, capable of withstanding political transitions and market pressures alike.

“It should be anchored on global best practices and Nigeria’s own industrial realities. The first thing to do is to gazette the policy as a binding law with punitive measures for non-compliance. Past executive orders 003 and 005 failed due to weak enforcement.

“In this regard, the federal government should mandate all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to allocate at least 65 per cent of their annual procurements budgets to locally manufactured products; establish an independent monitoring and compliance agency with the authority to conduct real-time audits of MDAs and their contractors.

“Impose sanctions and fines for non-compliance, including budgetary penalties and blacklisting from future public tenders. Amend the Public Procurement Act to embed Nigeria’s First Policy and link budgetary releases to verified compliance levels,” he stated.

He said that to guarantee transparency and fairness in government procurement, the Nigeria First Policy must be backed by a credible supplier registry, developed and maintained in collaboration with MAN.

He said: “In particular, establish and maintain a centralised database for certified Nigerian manufacturers and service providers, with MAN providing industry verification and quality assurance. Make registry inclusion a prerequisite for eligibility in all federal contracts.

“Use registry as a joint government-MAN tool for traceability, quality control, and monitoring of procurement performance.”

Dangote also stated that public perception and buying behaviour must align with Nigeria First Policy objectives. He, therefore, recommended the launching of “a ‘Buy Made in Nigeria’ campaign, modeled after India’s ‘Make in India,’ to encourage national pride in locally produced goods.

He tied the success of the policy to the level of backward integration, which he said is currently weak.”

“To transform the economy, The Nigeria First Policy must move beyond declarations into actionable, measurable outcomes that prioritise local value creation and notional prosperity. This is crucial for our growth,” he argued.

Responding, President Bola Tinubu, who was the special guest of honour at the lecture, said that the “Nigeria First Policy is not a slogan but a clear vision to use government policy, procurement and partnership to direct demand towards locally made goods that meet globally competitive standards so that Nigerian manufacturers can compete both at home and abroad.”

Tinubu, who was represented by the Minister of State, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment (FMITI), Senator John Enoh, said that the theme of the lecture mirrors the conviction of the administration that no country achieves prosperity without producing at home what it can and exporting at scale what it does best.

Tinubu also outlined his administration’s practical commitments to the policy, which include a “tender procurement that upholds local production; the maintenance of quarterly compliance dashboard from the first quarter of 2026, where the FMITI and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) will publish a league table showing the share of eligible federal procurements awarded to local manufacturers.”

The president also said that his administration is committed to ensuring quality and trust at point of sale and emphasised that “only SON certified (e-MANCAP) products will be qualified for federal preference.”

He said: “What the citizens should expect is greater visibility of Made in Nigeria products in public procurement, examples: uniforms, hospital supplies, cables, meters, packaging and pharmaceuticals. By December 2025, the FMITI and BPP will issue guidelines and documentation required when imports are chosen over certified local options.

 “By January 2026, the BOI will publish Nigeria’s First window criteria. By the end of the Q1’26, the first procurement compliance dashboard gets published and sectoral local content benchmarks will be announced and the first industrial cluster will get approved.”

The Director General of BPP, Dr. Adebowale Adedokun, said during the lecture’s panel session that the BPP’s Act has already provided enough legislations for the implementation and enforcement of the Nigeria First Policy of the federal government.

Adedokun said that with the Act the agency would be able to set up policies, provide guidelines and set frameworks that would drive the Nigeria First Policy across different sectors of the economy.

He said: “The public sector procurement must take into cognisance the local manufacturing sector. The Act as it is today already gives us enough power. What that is lacking is compliance and enforcement. The direction we are going now is to give both the public and private sectors the opportunity to have a firm policy that we will implement and be sure that we get desired results.”

 “Buying foreign made cars is four times more expensive than Nigerian assembled vehicles.  In terms of specifications, a Nigerian made vehicle is sound.”

He added that in the next few months the government would be producing a framework on Nigeria First policy that would be gazette and become institutional.

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