President Muhammadu Buhari has directed Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs to give priority to indigenous professionals for planning, design, and execution of national projects.
The President said foreign professionals should only be considered where it had been certified that the expertise was not available.
Speaking on Thursday at the Inauguration of the Presidential Monitoring and Evaluation Council of the Executive Order 5 at the Presidential Villa Abuja, President Buhari said the Federal Government will introduce Margin of Preference in National Competitive Bidding in contracts in the evaluation of tenders from indigenous suppliers of goods manufactured locally over foreign goods.
“All MDAs shall ensure that any professional practising in Nigeria must be duly registered with the appropriate regulatory body in Nigeria.”
He explained that Executive Order No 5 was aimed at placing Nigerian professionals and manufacturers at the centre of the Nigerian economy.
The President noted that Executive Order 5 will be used by the administration to midwife a new beginning that would transform Nigeria’s economy from resource-based to knowledge-based and innovation-driven.
President Buhari said suppliers and contractors under the national competitive bidding process shall disclose local material (processed or unprocessed), where available and needed for the execution of projects.
He hinted that designs for all contracts, programmes, projects, etc., shall be in the English language before signing.
The President, who is also Chairman of the Presidential Monitoring Evaluation Council, said the team would oversee the general implementation of the Executive Order 5, and the secretariat would be domiciled at the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation, supported by the Strategy Implementation Task Office for Presidential Executive Order 5 (SITOPEO-5).
He said the secretariat would facilitate the administration, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the provisions of Executive Order No. 5 and provide prompt reports to Council.
In his remarks, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ogbonnaya Onu, said the inauguration was timely, assuring that implementation would harness the human and natural resources of the country, reduce exportation of jobs, and remove the current renting pattern, which fuels inefficacy.