Tinubu signs legislation to produce weapons and ammunition locally

The Nigerian Defense Industries Corporation Bill, 2023, received President Bola Tinubu’s assent on Thursday.

The previous version of the Defense Industries Corporation of Nigeria Act is repealed by the Defense Industries Corporation of Nigeria Act, 2023, according to a statement released on Thursday and signed by Ajuri Ngelale, the President’s Special Advisor on Media and Publicity.

The title of the statement was “President Tinubu assents to Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria Bill.”

Part 94 of the Laws of the Federation, 2004 updated the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, which was founded on August 1, 1964, by an Act of Parliament.

In its revised form, the bill, which is supported by Babajimi Benson (APC — Ikorodu Federal Constituency), the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Defense, gives the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria the authority to manage and control its subsidiaries and ordnance factories, as well as to produce, stockpile, and discard ordnance and related materials.

Furthermore, it facilitates the creation of the Defence Industry Technology, Research, and Development Institute, which aims to establish a sophisticated scientific and research-based technological foundation for Nigeria’s defense industry by utilizing combined, multidisciplinary research from multiple military research institutes for an application that leads to commercialization and the development of new military technology and capacity in Nigeria.

Under the Act, the production, distribution, storage, and disposal of defense articles in Nigeria are all regulated in a comprehensive manner. Additionally, the Act encourages the creation of a sophisticated financing structure that allows private capital to support R&D and production in the defense industry in a transparent and predictable manner.