FG Charges Manufacturers to Take Advantage of Import Duty Waivers
The Federal Government through the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, has called on manufacturers in Nigeria to take advantage of import duty waivers through the Import Duty Exemption Certification.
The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Adeniyi Adebayo, who was represented by the Deputy Director of Industrial Development at the Ministry, Mohammed Bala, gave the charge to the manufacturers during a national symposium organised by the INGO Third Sector Resource and African Business Roundtable in Abuja.
The symposium was themed ‘the implications of import dependence for ARVs/vaccines for HIV, COVID-19 and related health responses and the need to accelerate local production in Nigeria in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.’
He stated that the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investments has developed the Import Duty Exemption Certificate (IDEC) to address this manufacturing issue and how they can intervene.
The minister hinted that IDEC is in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Finance, where incentives are given to local manufacturers and urged the pharmaceutical industry to come to the ministry to see how they can support them.
“The other one is that we are promoting the BIPC, Backward Integration Programme Certificate, where local industries are certified and can have access to government incentives,” the minister added.
According to him, the trade ministry was committed to contributing its quota in ensuring that there is an all-round development of the health industry in Nigeria by developing a policy framework that would facilitate the manufacturing of drugs, conventional and herbal vaccines, and medical instruments diagnostics in the country.
In his words “The Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Investment is in the process of developing the policy framework. The policy framework will facilitate the development of the capacity process of self-efficiency in the manufacture of drugs, conventional and herbal vaccines, medical instruments diagnostics and products as well as a sustainable health industry that is locally endowed and internationally recognized.”
On his part, the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, who was represented by the Director of Food and Drugs Services, Olubunmi Aribeana, announced that only the health ministry has the mandate to issue IDEC to pharmaceutical and health-related importers.
Ehanire highlighted that Nigeria lacks active pharmaceutical ingredients to be one of the world’s manufacturers of vaccines.
He tasked the country to aim at becoming pharmaceutically independent and self-reliant to gain an adequate local capacity to produce essential medical products and commodities.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ogbonnaya Onu, who was also represented by an Assistant Director, David Erabhalemon, said that the Federal Government should this time encourage the local manufacturing of APIs to make Nigeria less dependent on the importation of pharmaceutical raw materials.
