The Federal Government has given the assurance that it would expose engineers to large-scale projects that would boost long-term local contents development.
Shedding light on the matter, in Abuja, on Tuesday, during a workshop, organised by Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Science and Technology Minister, Ogbonnaya Onu, said that Nigerian engineers needed to be exposed to relevant scientific and engineering projects that would increase job opportunities and strengthen national self-reliance.
He said that the government would fast-track infrastructural development course by fully encouraging Nigerian engineering firms to be the arrow-head of such developmental effort.
“Nigeria is in a dire need of sustainable social infrastructure to support the much anticipated socio-economic development.
“We may take the easy route of becoming the world’s destination for “ready-made“ skills and products. By extension, we will be offering other opportunities to advance ready-made capacities and skills, which we will continue to pay for at the peril of killing our growth potential in all ramification,“ Onu said.
According to Onu, such development would positively affect fiscal activities such as relieving seemingly futile reactionary regulatory efforts on Nigeria currency foreign exchange values.
In his remark, the President of Nigerian Society of Engineers, Oliver Anyaeji, said that the awards of projects to foreign companies would neither help in effectively empowering local firms nor lead to the attainment of respective installed capacities.
Anyaeji said that the workshop was aimed at exploring the effects of Federal Executive Council (FEC) guidelines for planning and execution of projects, programmes and contracts with science, engineering and technology components.
