The Federal Government announced on Thursday that the nation is ready to commence domestic manufacturing of military equipment following the recent approval of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria Bill by President Bola Tinubu.
After signing the bill, the Minister of Defence, Muhammad Badaru, disclosed that the Federal Government has engaged in discussions with approximately 50 domestic and international companies regarding the domestic manufacturing of firearms within the country.
As per his account, a total of 13 companies have already commenced the manufacturing of firearms in Nigeria.
During the Ministerial Sectorial Update in Abuja on Thursday, Badaru highlighted that Nigeria has made substantial advancements in combating terrorism during the past year under the leadership of the Tinubu administration.
“With the help of the bill, Nigeria has been discussing with over 50 private companies, both within and abroad, in the area of production of weapons and other military equipment.
“In fact, 13 of them have already started production or are about to start production.”
“The Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Army Staff, the Chief of Naval Staff and the Chief of Air Staff are working together as against what it used to be. That has led to productivity and efficiency in their operations. In addition to this, we have close collaboration with the office of the National Security Adviser, the police, the NSCDC and all other security agencies.
“This has translated to tremendous progress in the last one year. Because of the synergy, we were able to neutralise more than 9,300 bandits and insurgents; about 7,000 were arrested while we rescued 4,641 kidnapped victims in just one year.
“We have also recovered 4,882 assorted weapons and 83,900 assorted ammunition in just one year. Among those that we naturalised were bandits that you hear. We have neutralised not less than 20 bandit leaders the commanders of insurgents and terrorists in just one year,” he said.
