President of the Senate, Senator David Mark has called on the Federal Government to create safety nets that would protect local industries against unhealthy competition. Senator Mark, who stated this while receiving the Group Chief Executive Officer/Group Managing, Director of Notore Chemical Industries Limited, Onajite Okoloko, lamented the dearth of local industries in Nigeria.
According to the President of the Senate, “our local industries must be provided with some level of protection to safeguard them from the threats of competitors who bring in similar products from abroad.
“The National Assembly will cooperate with local producers by creating enabling legislative environment that would enhance the activities of our local industries”, Senator Mar further said.
Condemning the actions of some investors that bought into the companies privatized by the Federal Government, Senator Mark said: “From the investigation conducted by our ad-hoc Committee, we discovered that the privatization exercise was a near disaster.
“Many of the investors who promised to rehabilitate the companies and improve on their fortunes looted the property of those companies and in other instances vandalized them.
“I’m happy that Notore has made a success of the privatization exercise. I urge you to look at other parts of the country and identify where you can establish plants in order to bring down the prices of fertilizer and make it available to our farmers.
Okoloko, who led other members of his company’s management to Senator Mark, noted that his organization, as part of strategies to encourage farmers, produce small packs of fertilizer and sell directly to them.
He urged the President of the Senate not to relent his efforts in leading the National Assembly to provide legislations that will help agriculture and re-energize our economy by creating jobs for unemployed.
