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, while issuing the directive in Abuja at the inauguration of the Presidential Monitoring and Evaluation Council of the Executive Order 5, said foreign professionals should only be considered where it had been certified that the expertise was not available.

He said the Federal Government would 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.

President Buhari explained that the Executive Order No 5 was aimed at placing Nigerian Professionals and Manufacturers at the centre of the Nigerian Economy.

He said the Executive Order 5 would be used by the administration to midwife a new beginning that would transform Nigeria’s economy from resource-based to a knowledge-based and innovation-driven.

Muhammadu Buhari said suppliers and contractors under national competitive bidding process shall disclose local material, processed or unprocessed, where available and needed for the execution of projects.

In the Order, according to him, the Ministry of Interior shall ensure that Expatriate Quota for projects, contracts, and programmes are granted in consonants with the provisions of the Immigration Act and other relevant laws.

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 that 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.

He directed the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to work with the office of the Minister of Justice to facilitate the early passage of the Bill for the Order at the National Assembly in line with the decisions of the Federal Executive Council.

Buhari said Federal Government would do its utmost to ensure that Order No 5 was fully implemented, assuring that such would create wealth, strengthen the economy, and provide employment.

Speaking, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, had assured that the implementation would harness the human and natural resources of the country, reduce exportation of jobs, and remove the current renting pattern, which fuels inefficacy.

PR/Bello Wakili, Abuja