Patronizing local products no doubt helps to develop the potential of entrepreneurs and reduce poverty.
However, without a local market, it would be challenging for some manufacturers to continue production.
Patronizing local manufacturers also has the net effect of job creation and making local producers remain economically viable.
Furthermore, the money accrued by patronizing local small businesses generates local taxes and fees that are reinvested into the economy thereby supporting development of social services and infrastructure.
For instance, a recent report by the United States Bureau of Labour Statistics, notes that approximately sixty-two percent of all the new jobs in the United States are created by small businesses while nearly fifty percent of the United States’ GDP is generated by small businesses.
The Foreign Trade Statistics released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, from the fourth quarter of 2014 to the third quarter of last year, also revealed that Nigeria spent over Six Trillion naira on import bills.
To prevent this, it is important that Nigerians continue to patronize more of local products, so as to empower local entrepreneurs and give a needed boost to the development of local industries.
In fact, this would be in line with the policy of the government, which had established a new ministry to promote the development of National Industries.
When local producers are able to get more patronage, they would be encouraged to produce more, which would in turn help expand local businesses resulting positively on the National economy.
While the market is open to all players, more encouragement in terms of Tax holidays and the provision of energy should be given to local industries to enable them compete with imports from the big industries in Asia, America and Europe.
It behooves manufacturers of locally made products to be innovative as this will add more value to their products and attract more customers.
For instance, the Kaduna State Coordinator of the Standards Organization of Nigeria, SON, Alhaji Abba Bauchi, recently announced that four hundred and forty seven companies out of the five hundred and sixty-one companies inspected in the state, failed the routine certification of the organization.
Alhaji Bauchi disclosed that only eighty-four of the companies met the criteria for quality certification and this data paints a picture of how serious most companies operating in the country take issues of quality of products they produce.
Local manufacturers must improve on the quality of their products while government should ensure that importation of substandard products is significantly reduced.
To this end, the call by President Muhammadu Buhari for Nigerians to purchase products made in the country to stabilize domestic manufacturing and industrialization, is a right step in the right direction.
It is necessary that Nigerians should patronize made in Nigeria goods, as this will boost the economy and ensure the country develops through income generation and job creation.
There must therefore be greater public sensitization, to help change the attitude of local consumers towards locally-produced goods.
Titilayo Kupoliyi
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