NIGERIANS URGED TO BUY MADE-IN-NIGERIA GOODS TO STIMULATE GROWTH

The managing director/chief executive officer of Heritage Bank Limited, Mr Ifie Sekibo has advised Nigerians to always patronise locally made goods and services so as to stimulate growth in the economy and preserve the foreign exchange.
Sekibo, said this during the presentation of the Gold Sponsorship award for 2015 to Heritage Bank by the Finance Correspondents Association of Nigeria (FICAN) at the bank’s head office in Lagos recently.
He stressed the need to drive the conversation for Nigerians to change their lifestyles. “We can’t grow an economy where all we want to spend on are dollar-denominated and foreign goods.
“Left for Nigerians, they want to be doing all their spending on dollars, forgetting that dollar is not our local currency. Everything they do with dollar gives employment to somebody in another country and not in Nigeria. So, we must continue to have that conversation and it must be robust.
“So, it is important as a people to begin to educate our fellow Nigerians on these things and it is the financial correspondents that must drive this, because this is a very serious issue and if we don’t, we would all regret it. You have members in print, electronic and online, if with 100 people on your platform alone, you can drive this change.”
Commenting on the award by FICAN, he said: “We are still very young in our development as an organisation. We didn’t step out to support FICAN with the intention of getting this award. People send all kinds of letters to us saying we have been awarded this and that but we have been turning them down.