FG bars foreign professionals without Nigeria certification

–Declares state of emergency on science and
technology
—Gives 3-yr tax rebate to pioneer industries in
Nigeria

THE Federal Executive Council, FEC, Wednesday approved a new
policy that for any foreign professionals to practice in Nigeria,
they have to be registered and certified by all the necessary
regulatory bodies.

This is as the Federal Government has declared a state of
emergency on science and technology to boost technological
acquisition for the industrial growth of the country.

Meantime, to attract foreign industries, the Federal Executive
Council has approved tax rebate which will serve as an incentive
for pioneer industries operating in Nigeria.

Briefing State House Correspondents after weekly FEC meeting at
the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa Abuja, the Minister of
Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu said, “We agreed that
from now on, any person who wants to practice any profession that
has anything to do with science, engineering and technology,
medical doctors, accountants, quantity surveyors just to mention
but a few, that first they have to be certified by appropriate
regulatory bodies in Nigeria.”

The Minister said that FEC in its deliberations approved policy
that will help to change the direction that will be taken as a
nation, a direction that will be very useful in helping to start
looking inwards to produce the things that the country needs as
against depending on outside to import our requirements.

He said, “Some of the highlights will involve where we have bulk
purchases major items that will bring into the country those who
normally would have supplied from outside the country will now come
to Nigeria and establish their factories to produce in Nigeria.

“By doing so, they will offer job opportunities to our people,
tax will be paid to government, wealth will be created and most
importantly, Nigeria will now acquire the necessary technology that
will help us build capacity.

“This is very important in our building our local capacity.
There are so many areas that this new policy has coved because the
aim of this new policy is to make sure that in the next ten years,
Nigeria firms will be in a position to carry out very complex jobs.
A sort of jobs that we don’t currently have the expertise to do in
the country.

“And for such jobs, we will rely on foreign expertise and
foreign firms for now but when they come, they have to work with
Nigerian firms so that these Nigerian firms will understudy them
and this will be from the conception to the commissioning.

“That is the only way that we can hope to acquire to acquire the
necessary technology to build our local capacity because our aim is
like in the next ten years like I said we will be able to have own
domestic firms, Nigerian firms to carry out all these jobs.

“And in about 20 years, we want to see Nigerian firms competing
with the very best in the world.

“So, the Federal Executive Council, accepted to declare a state
of emergency for science and technology and this is very important
because even the economic recovery and growth plan 2018 to 2020
recognizes the cardinal place of science and technology in driving
this recovery and growth plan of government.

“We are not looking for transfer of technology because we know
it will not happen, what we are looking for is acquisition of
technology and we are interested in building our own capacity.

“We are convinced that we can do this and we believe that with
the approval given to this policy once implemented, we will be in a
position to acquire technology.

“This policy is a very comprehensive policy. We will pay a lot
of attention to training. We will make sure that we have all the
artisans we need, all the technicians that we need so that once
somebody is building a house, once you get up to finishing of that
house, you are most likely going to bring people from outside
country. Many of them come from our neighbouring countries. This we
will not allow to continue. So we want to build the requisite
manpower.

“We will also use the Ministry of Interior to help us with a new
classification in our immigration policy. Those areas that we lack
expertise as of now, we will use that classification to bring in
those who have such expertise particularly from African
countries.

“Then we will also be working closely with Nigerians in the
Diaspora because many Nigerians outside the country have a lot of
skills which we need at this time particularly in order to
implement this policy, we will be working with them.”

FG approves tax rebate for pioneer
industries

Also briefing journalists, the Minister of Industry, Trade and
Investment, Okechukwu Enalema said government has approved tax
rebate for pioneer industry to establish in the country, noting
that the policy was to serve as an incentive to attract new
investors.

The Minister said, “FEC approved a memorandum that was presented
to amend the list of pioneer industries and products that will
enjoy pioneer status going forward.

“As many of you know the pioneer incentive scheme is governed by
ye Industrial Development Income Tax Relief Act and the whole
purpose is to give tax holidays to industries we consider
pioneer.

“Pioneer doesn’t mean that they are new it only means that they
are not yet mature, we want those industries to grow. We want to
attract investment in them and you will find that this covers a
wide range of industries and those tax holidays ranges from three
to five years.

“The pioneer list was last reviewed by the Federal Executive
Council in 2006, so you could see that this was long overdue.

“On doing the review, special attention was paid to the ERGP to
capture the current realities that will help to implement the plan
to make sure we attract the kind of investment, industries and
players that will help to implement and realize our objectives in
the ERGP.

“I should also point out that there was multi stakeholder
engagement, private and public sector in arriving at the industries
that will be included in the pioneer incentive scheme.

“In terms of the recommendations approved by FEC today: we have
tried to remove all ambiguities in the definition of industries by
reclassifying industries according to the international standard in
industrial classification which is the global standard which is
also the standard that is used by the Nigeria Bureau of
Statistics.

“The other thing we also did is to agree that the pioneer list
will be reviewed regularly every two years, biannually so that just
that if things come up, we live in a fast changing world and we are
being responsive to our world. In the case of additions to the list
they will be effected immediately, for deletion of industries that
we consider mature there will be a three year window that will be
allowed for those that are already investing in that industry that
were enjoying pioneer status to carry on till the end of that three
year period.

“Against this backdrop, we then approved 27 industries that were
recommended for addition to the pioneer list today.

“We also recommended and it was accepted by the Council that
mineral oil prospecting which is governed by the Petroleum Profit
Tax should not be part of the pioneer industries list which is
really industries governed by the Companies Income Tax Act.

“It was also accepted that given the success we have achieved in
cement which are now net exporters, maybe that is an industry which
we could say that we are now where we want to be in terms of
maturity even though there is still a lot of scope for the
application and the use of cement and you know that will continue.
We already have critical mass in cement

“The scheme will ensure that it will not deprive us of revenue.
It is an incentive to make people enter your market, new enter
industries, invest more for people who are already here. It will
increase our tax base over time.”

–Declares state of emergency on science and
technology
—Gives 3-yr tax rebate to pioneer industries in
Nigeria

THE Federal Executive Council, FEC, Wednesday approved a new
policy that for any foreign professionals to practice in Nigeria,
they have to be registered and certified by all the necessary
regulatory bodies.

This is as the Federal Government has declared a state of
emergency on science and technology to boost technological
acquisition for the industrial growth of the country.

Meantime, to attract foreign industries, the Federal Executive
Council has approved tax rebate which will serve as an incentive
for pioneer industries operating in Nigeria.

Briefing State House Correspondents after weekly FEC meeting at
the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa Abuja, the Minister of
Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu said, “We agreed that
from now on, any person who wants to practice any profession that
has anything to do with science, engineering and technology,
medical doctors, accountants, quantity surveyors just to mention
but a few, that first they have to be certified by appropriate
regulatory bodies in Nigeria.”

The Minister said that FEC in its deliberations approved policy
that will help to change the direction that will be taken as a
nation, a direction that will be very useful in helping to start
looking inwards to produce the things that the country needs as
against depending on outside to import our requirements.

He said, “Some of the highlights will involve where we have bulk
purchases major items that will bring into the country those who
normally would have supplied from outside the country will now come
to Nigeria and establish their factories to produce in Nigeria.

“By doing so, they will offer job opportunities to our people,
tax will be paid to government, wealth will be created and most
importantly, Nigeria will now acquire the necessary technology that
will help us build capacity.

“This is very important in our building our local capacity.
There are so many areas that this new policy has coved because the
aim of this new policy is to make sure that in the next ten years,
Nigeria firms will be in a position to carry out very complex jobs.
A sort of jobs that we don’t currently have the expertise to do in
the country.

“And for such jobs, we will rely on foreign expertise and
foreign firms for now but when they come, they have to work with
Nigerian firms so that these Nigerian firms will understudy them
and this will be from the conception to the commissioning.

“That is the only way that we can hope to acquire to acquire the
necessary technology to build our local capacity because our aim is
like in the next ten years like I said we will be able to have own
domestic firms, Nigerian firms to carry out all these jobs.

“And in about 20 years, we want to see Nigerian firms competing
with the very best in the world.

“So, the Federal Executive Council, accepted to declare a state
of emergency for science and technology and this is very important
because even the economic recovery and growth plan 2018 to 2020
recognizes the cardinal place of science and technology in driving
this recovery and growth plan of government.

“We are not looking for transfer of technology because we know
it will not happen, what we are looking for is acquisition of
technology and we are interested in building our own capacity.

“We are convinced that we can do this and we believe that with
the approval given to this policy once implemented, we will be in a
position to acquire technology.

“This policy is a very comprehensive policy. We will pay a lot
of attention to training. We will make sure that we have all the
artisans we need, all the technicians that we need so that once
somebody is building a house, once you get up to finishing of that
house, you are most likely going to bring people from outside
country. Many of them come from our neighbouring countries. This we
will not allow to continue. So we want to build the requisite
manpower.

“We will also use the Ministry of Interior to help us with a new
classification in our immigration policy. Those areas that we lack
expertise as of now, we will use that classification to bring in
those who have such expertise particularly from African
countries.

“Then we will also be working closely with Nigerians in the
Diaspora because many Nigerians outside the country have a lot of
skills which we need at this time particularly in order to
implement this policy, we will be working with them.”

FG approves tax rebate for pioneer
industries

Also briefing journalists, the Minister of Industry, Trade and
Investment, Okechukwu Enalema said government has approved tax
rebate for pioneer industry to establish in the country, noting
that the policy was to serve as an incentive to attract new
investors.

The Minister said, “FEC approved a memorandum that was presented
to amend the list of pioneer industries and products that will
enjoy pioneer status going forward.

“As many of you know the pioneer incentive scheme is governed by
ye Industrial Development Income Tax Relief Act and the whole
purpose is to give tax holidays to industries we consider
pioneer.

“Pioneer doesn’t mean that they are new it only means that they
are not yet mature, we want those industries to grow. We want to
attract investment in them and you will find that this covers a
wide range of industries and those tax holidays ranges from three
to five years.

“The pioneer list was last reviewed by the Federal Executive
Council in 2006, so you could see that this was long overdue.

“On doing the review, special attention was paid to the ERGP to
capture the current realities that will help to implement the plan
to make sure we attract the kind of investment, industries and
players that will help to implement and realize our objectives in
the ERGP.

“I should also point out that there was multi stakeholder
engagement, private and public sector in arriving at the industries
that will be included in the pioneer incentive scheme.

“In terms of the recommendations approved by FEC today: we have
tried to remove all ambiguities in the definition of industries by
reclassifying industries according to the international standard in
industrial classification which is the global standard which is
also the standard that is used by the Nigeria Bureau of
Statistics.

“The other thing we also did is to agree that the pioneer list
will be reviewed regularly every two years, biannually so that just
that if things come up, we live in a fast changing world and we are
being responsive to our world. In the case of additions to the list
they will be effected immediately, for deletion of industries that
we consider mature there will be a three year window that will be
allowed for those that are already investing in that industry that
were enjoying pioneer status to carry on till the end of that three
year period.

“Against this backdrop, we then approved 27 industries that were
recommended for addition to the pioneer list today.

“We also recommended and it was accepted by the Council that
mineral oil prospecting which is governed by the Petroleum Profit
Tax should not be part of the pioneer industries list which is
really industries governed by the Companies Income Tax Act.

“It was also accepted that given the success we have achieved in
cement which are now net exporters, maybe that is an industry which
we could say that we are now where we want to be in terms of
maturity even though there is still a lot of scope for the
application and the use of cement and you know that will continue.
We already have critical mass in cement

“The scheme will ensure that it will not deprive us of revenue.
It is an incentive to make people enter your market, new enter
industries, invest more for people who are already here. It will
increase our tax base over time.”