Chief Kunle Folarin, Chairman, Ports Consultative Council (PCC), has urged the Federal Government to encourage import substitution policy to create a balance between importers and manufacturers.
Folarin made the appeal in an interview in Lagos on Monday.
His appeal came on the heels of a statement credited to the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh, that importers were the greatest wreckers of Nigeria’s efforts to promote patronage of locally-produced goods.
According to him, import substitution policy means that as you are allowing finished products to come, we must be encouraging manufacturers of primary products that will be used, instead of the ones you are exporting.
“For example, if you are looking for imported drinks and government says they are going to manufacture the bottles in Nigeria.
“Just like the way the Coca-Cola company does. They bring in concentrates, process it and bottle it, in the country,” Folarin said.
He said that importers were responding to demand in the economy such as responding to demand for finished products, machinery for the pharmaceuticals and other industries.
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