Uche Usim, Abuja 

When President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Executive Order 5 (EO5) on February 2, 2018, it was principally to grow the economy by harnessing local technologies and skills. 

Since the colonial era, Nigeria has relied on foreign expertise to design and operate its technological landscape, to the detriment of competent local hands who frustratingly went offshore to hone their skills, leading to perennial brain drain in the country.

That, according to analysts, explains why a good number of Nigerians are the drivers of developed economies, while expatriates with questionable credentials hold sway back home.

Aside from losing trillions of naira annually via capital flight, experts say the current situation of foreign dominance in virtually all sectors of the Nigerian economy has horrifying security implications because expatriates, regardless of remuneration, will somewhat sabotage Nigeria from achieving global dominance, especially in technology.

They reckon that Nigeria’s competitive advantage can only be globally appreciated with Nigerians on the driver’s seat.

More so, there has not been sufficient technology transfer as most contracts are exploitative in design and execution and skewed in favour of foreign investors.

In May, a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Ben Ibakpa raised the alarm that some Nigerian officials signed loan documents from China written in the Chinese language to the detriment of Nigeria.

Worse, the loans come with obnoxious conditions of using Chinese engineers and technicians to execute the huge projects, thus rendering local manpower redundant.

The lawmaker noted that the EXIM Bank of China remains Nigeria’s biggest bilateral creditor in nearly two decades, having lent the African largest economy $6.5 billion (N1.9 trillion) since 2002 but the technology has resided with China including maintenance agreements.

“Transportation and ICT sectors have six projects each financed by loans from the Chinese bank, while energy, agriculture and water sectors, respectively, have three and two projects tied to Chinese loans. But the National Assembly wasn’t carried along and a lot of things are not clear”, he noted.

Analysts say China is not the only culprit of economic colonialism of Nigeria, as most countries latch on the weak local content laws to oppressively engage Nigeria in hefty projects in scathing terms using their native language.

So, the proclamation entitled “Presidential Executive Order for Planning and Execution of Projects, Promotion of Nigerian Content in Contracts and Science, Engineering and Technology,’’ seeks to halt the humongous capital flight running into trillions of naira annually due to government’s insatiable appetite for foreign hands when local options have not been exhausted.

By that executive order, which took immediate effect, the President mandated all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of government to engage indigenous professionals in the planning, design and execution of national security projects and maximise in-country capacity in all contracts and transactions with science, engineering and technology components.

The document recognized the vital role of science, technology and innovation in national economic development, particularly in the area of promoting Made in Nigeria Goods and Services (MNGS).

Strategically, the main objectives of the EO5 are the leveraging on domestic talents and the development of local capacity in science and engineering for the promotion of technological innovation needed to drive national competitiveness, productivity and economic activities.

This will essentially enhance the achievement of the nation’s development goals across all sectors of the economy and plant the country on the path to becoming a world power.

According to economic experts, the aforementioned goals have been previously captured in various policy blueprints, such as the Vision 20:2020; National Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (NSTIP) first approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) in 2012; Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, (ERGP 2017 – 2020); Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy (STISA) 2024 and 2063; and Nigeria’s targets under the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, (SDG 2030).

So, the E05 takes the conversation from mere document to implementation, by promoting the application of local content in science, technology and innovation within Nigeria.

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Simbi Wabote, at a recent interface with the media reckoned that the E05 further fortifies the Board to carry out its mandate with precision.

He described it as a vital document that would encourage indigenous experts in diaspora to return to home for public procurements purposes. This, he added, would result in improved standards and healthy competition in all sectors.

He noted that preference would be given to Nigerian companies and firms by procuring authorities in the award of contracts.

To deepen local content, Wabote revealed that about 494 expatriate quota applications were rejected in 2019 because there was no longer room to outsource jobs to foreigners in the oil and gas sector when there are Nigerians with sufficient capacity and capability to deliver to taste.

He further revealed that the NCDMB, under his watch, has unveiled a 10-year strategic roadmap under a short, medium, and long-term targets to increase Nigerian content performance from 28% to 70% by 2027.

He said: “The key rewards from the implementation of the 10-year roadmap are the creation of 300,000 jobs from industry activities and the retention of US$14bn in-country out of the US$20bn annual industry spend”.

In the aviation sector, the Minister, Mr Hadi Sirika Sirika said the E05 has helped strengthen its policy on expatriate quota issues.

According to him, the only areas where foreign experts will be engaged are where there is no licensed Nigerian professional to handle the job or the ones available are insufficient.

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The Minister noted that the policy forbids indiscriminate employment of expatriates to the detriment of the country as it has led to joblessness of many local professionals.

“This policy will help to engage the Nigerian teeming professionals who do not have jobs. We are eager to correct certain imbalances and ensure proper development of the aviation sector.

Industry records show that local airlines spend well over N40 billion annually to pay foreign pilots they engaged.

The development has been condemned by various aviation unions who insist that it is counter-productive paying expatriates heavily when there are many capable Nigerians on ground.

In the maritime sector, the capital flight and loss of jobs Nigerians have capability to undertake remain unquantifiable.

But ship chandlers, a microcosm of the sector say Nigeria loses $15 billion annually to foreign dominance as the government was yet to fully stamp its local content agenda on the business.

In 2018, the President, Nigerian Licensed Ship Chandlers, Dr Martins Enebeli said that the loss was scary and asked the government to intervene

In the agribusiness sub-sector, the Central Bank of Nigeria has halted foreign exchange support for about 43 items that can be produced locally, saving billions of dollars in the process.

Analysts who weighed in on EO5 said it will help the Immigration Service providers create a special immigration class for experts in African countries to work and reside in Nigeria so as to share their knowledge with Nigerian experts. This will aid the capacity of the companies and foster inter-Africa relations.

They reckon that the policy has laid a proper foundation for an industrial, diversified and self-sustaining economy. It is a step towards a sustainable path and to a future in which wholesale importation and consumption of foreign technology is reduced.

With the passing into law of the Order, and the already existing provisions in the Companies and allied matters Act 1999, Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act of 2010 regulating the expatriate quota process, a key to its effectiveness and sustenance will be the need to properly monitor and execute the letter and spirit behind the Order.

The EO5 makes certain specific directives which include the following:

All procuring authorities shall give preference to Nigerian companies and firms in the award of contracts, in line with the Public Procurement Act, 2007;

Where expertise is lacking, procuring entities shall give preference to foreign companies and firms with demonstrable and verifiable plan for indigenous capacity development, prior to the award of such contracts;

MDAs shall engage indigenous professionals in the planning, design and execution of national security projects and consideration shall only be given to a foreign professional, where it is certified by the appropriate authority that such expertise is not available in Nigeria;

Nigerian companies or firms duly registered in accordance with the laws of Nigeria, with current practising licence shall be lead in any consultancy services involving Joint Venture (JV) relationships and agreements, relating to Law, Engineering, ICT, Architecture, Procurement, Quantity Surveying, and etc.;

MDAs shall ensure that before the award of any contract, Nigerian counterpart staff are engaged from the conception stage to the end of the project and shall also adopt local technology that meet set standards to replace foreign ones;

The Ministry of Interior is prohibited from giving visas to foreign workers whose skills are readily available in Nigeria;

The Federal Government shall introduce Margin of Preference (“MoP”) in National Competitive Bidding, in the evaluation of tenders, from indigenous suppliers of goods manufactured locally over foreign goods (MoP shall be 15% for both international competitive bidding for Goods and domestic contractors for national competitive bidding for Goods. For Works for domestic contractors, the MoP shall be 7.5%);

Foreign companies or firms shall not be engaged in contracts for Works, Goods, and Services in the country in violation of the standard international best practices as provided for under relevant statutes such as the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), Council for Regulation of Engineering (COREN) Act, Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply Management Act, Public Procurement Act, and the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) Act as well as other relevant Nigerian laws and regulations on acquisition of technology and conduct of public procurement;

MDAs shall ensure that all professionals practising in the country are duly registered with the appropriate regulatory bodies in Nigeria, and shall ensure, in collaboration with the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, that all foreign professional certificates are domesticated with the relevant professional bodies before being considered for any contract award or employment in Nigeria;

Agreements involving any Joint Venture and Public Private Partnership (PPP) between a foreign firm and a Nigerian firm, for technology acquisition or otherwise, shall be registered with the National Office for Technology Acquisition (NOTAP) in accordance with the provisions of the NOTAP Act, before such contract are signed by the MDAs;

A Nigerian company or firm shall not be disqualified from an award of contract by any MDA on the basis of the year of incorporation except on the basis of qualification, competence and experience of the management in the execution of similar contracts;

NOTAP shall develop, maintain and regularly update a database of Nigerians with expertise in science, engineering, technology and other fields of expertise while the Ministry of Interior shall take into consideration the NOTAP database together with other similar data from the Nigerian Academy of Engineering; Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board; Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and other relevant Ministries; in determining the availability of local skilled manpower in science, technology and Innovation (STI) for the grant of expatriate quota;

Where qualifications and competence of Nigerians are either unavailable or unascertainable, the Ministry of Interior shall ensure that expatriate quota for projects, contracts and programme are granted in line with the provisions of the Immigration Act and other relevant laws, and may create special immigration classification to encourage foreign expatriates (particularly from African countries) to reside and work in Nigeria for the purpose of sharing knowledge with Nigerian professionals; and

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Ministry of Finance shall ensure that tax incentives are granted to existing machine tools companies (including foundry, machine shop, forge shop, and indigenous artisans) to boost local production of their products while tax incentives may be granted to Small & Medium Enterprises and foreign firms for the utilisation of local raw materials that are authenticated by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC).”ministrScience and Technolog