President Muhammadu Buhari pledged Thursday in Abuja that his administration will implement essential reforms to protect Nigerian manufacturers from unfair competition from abroad.

At a meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, and senior officials of relevant agencies, President Buhari stressed that with its focus on job creation, his government was ready to do whatever it considers necessary to boost domestic manufacturing and industrialisation.

The President said that his administration will fully support the effective implementation of the plan evolved by the Ministry to boost local manufacturing through legal, regulatory and structural reforms, lower interest rates, special intervention funds, protection of local manufacturers and significant improvements in national infrastructure.

“With high interest rates and entrepreneurs needing trillions of Naira to buy machinery, we are virtually back at Ground Zero as far as industrial development is concerned.

“So, we will shun all anti-development policies, and make the climate more suitable for entrepreneurs. We will create the environment for them to thrive. Generating employment was one of our key campaign promises and we will keep that promise.

“We will no longer allow our markets to be flooded with things we can produce ourselves. We must believe in our system. Whenever you need my intervention at any time, please come to me, ” President Buhari told the Permanent Secretary, Abdulkadir Musa and senior officials.

The Permanent Secretary and his team told the President that the objective of the Ministry’s Industrialisation Plan was to create more jobs, diversify exports and broaden the country’s tax base.

They said that the plan’s critical success factors included dialogue and consultation with industry stakeholders, essential reforms and greater collaboration among relevant agencies.