Industrialisation: FG To Implement New CET

The Federal Government
has said it would focus on the implementation of a new Common External Tariff (CET) to fast track the industrialisation process in the country.
This is contained in a document analysis of the 2014 budget on major focus of government to ensure good governance which was obtained  in Abuja from the Ministry of Finance last Thursday.
It said that government would also intensify investment promotion abroad to ensure that the biggest and best companies around the world invested in Nigeria.
On small and Medium Enterprise (SME), it noted that it would continue to be top priority of the government to ensure that jobs were created through them.
“Supporting the creation of jobs by the private sector will continue to be a top priority in 2014.
“They will be supplemented by direct government programmes such as the Nagropreneurs, YouWin, Graduate Internship Scheme and the SURE-P Community Service Programme.
According to the document, Nigeria has about 17 million registered SMEs which employed more than 32 million Nigerians.
It added that a stronger focus on the implementation of the Nigeria Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP) would strengthen and improve the SMEs job creation capacity in 2014.
“This will include; helping SMEs with access to affordable finance, business development service and youth training.’’
According to the document, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) estimated the number of jobs created across the country in 2013 to be about 1.6 million.
It added that in spite of the jobs already created, government was also keenly aware that there was the need to create more jobs to support the nation’s growing population.