Fedral Government Of Nigeria saves N4.2trn from import reduction information and news

The Federal Government yesterday said that the nation saved over N4.2 trillion since 2005 following reduction in the importation of goods.

Minister of Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, disclosed that the nation also saved over N300 billion as it satisfied local demands for cement.

Addressing journalists shortly after a meeting on the joint venture between Nigeria and Republic of Benin on production of cement, Aganga explained that importation of cement into the country decreased to about 43 per cent in 2012.

The minister said the two countries invested in the joint venture, but over the years Nigeria sold its shares to private sector. He, however, said the meeting was to ensure adequate compliance with post-privatisation processes as well the proper management of the cement factory in Benin Republic as agreed.

Aganga said: “There is no shortfall in terms of supply and demand, but as you said the total capacity, if all the cement factories in this country are working to full capacity, we will have 28.6 million tonnes of cement.

That is much higher than the demand as of today.” He said Nigeria had begun exporting cement to other countries, adding that the government stopped issuing import licence for cement since 2012 thereby saving the country N300 billion.

The minister said: “This contributed to the significant fall in import in 2012. If you look at the trade number, import fell by 43 per cent.

That is a dramatic fall compared to the previous years since 2005″. He said the government’s policy on cement had achieved availability of the product, which also increased capacity of its production. Aganga added that the development had created close to 2 million jobs for youths.

He said: “So when you see reserves building up, that is one of the reasons. And when you look at why has importation come down, you look at some products. If you look at cement for example, no importation at all and it saved us more than N300 billion”

“So, we are in a position we are today for the first time, we have falling imports which means that we are not importing most of the things we consume in the country. That is what industrialisation is supposed to achieve.