The Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has said that the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) would meet the demands of the military and other security agencies.
Matawalle said this at the DICON’s end-of-year celebration and Director-General’s (D-G) Productivity Award ceremony on Friday in Kaduna.
He said that the recent assent of the DICON Act 2023 by President Bola Tinubu has paved the way for the corporation to strengthen Nigeria’s defence capabilities.
Matawalle emphasised that the defence ministry would continue to limit procurements outside the country.
The minister said, “Any requirements of the military or other security agencies have to come to DICON for supply.
“Before now, we send our money to other countries, devalue our currency which makes the dollar go higher because we don’t have a productivity plan.
“Today, we thank God that with the leadership of the DICON’s director-general, the industry is seeing a lot of changes.”
Matawalle said that DICON would reach its peak in military and paramilitary requirements particularly in the production of arms and ammunition.
He said he earlier never believed that DICON could produce 10,000 rounds of ammunition.
“Today, DICON is able to produce so many rounds of ammunition and forward to the military.
“Our target is to produce 300 million rounds of ammunition.
“We will also be producing other military equipments like MRAPs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and other equipment for the military and paramilitary agencies,” he added.
Matawalle said the end-of-year celebration and productivity award was supposed to be held annually so as to engender motivation to the staffers.(NAN)
