The The Executive Secretary/Executive Director of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, Biodun Ajiboye, has urged Nigerians to use made in Nigeria products.

He said this is one of the solutions to the current economic challenges in Nigeria rather than focusing on imported materials.

Ajiboye, who spoke in Abuja ahead of the Nigeria Handicraft Fest, said the country needed to boost its local economy and reduce import dependence.

“We need to start stimulating our local cultural economy. Our cultural economy can do a lot for us because it can solve the immediate problem. There are so many things that we use locally, but we import them. While we don’t have to import at all.

“Let me shock you, before you were born, we wore clothes. And our people made clothes. No tailor to sew anything. But we wore clothes because they wove the clothes themselves. Of course, the clothes were beautiful.

“Some of those clothes are still there. We kill that industry when the tailors come. Of course, the tailors can take us no further than they have taken us. We’re back to where we should be,” he said.

On the planned craft festival, Ajiboye said the aim is to boost the grassroots of the creative economy and is designed to directly engage, encourage and promote artisans and women across the country, especially at the grassroots level.

“We want to take this to the grassroots level and see how we can motivate them to be proud of what they do and create a market for the consumption of what they do, increasing their pride in what they do, improving their economy , GDP the local environment and of course making the government proud,” said the NICO boss.

Ajiboye explained that 20 artisans, craftsmen and women of various specialties will be selected from each of the 774 local government areas in Nigeria whose crafts have been identified and recognized.

He said Nigeria has not done much to give artisans the right atmosphere to thrive, but stressed that the current administration of President Bola Tinubu is determined to change that narrative.

“Six editions of the festival will be held across the geopolitical zones of Nigeria and will last for one week. Artisans will be given a platform to exhibit their work as a direct route to the global market. The exciting initiative is led by the Federal Minister for Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and supported by NICO.”

“In total, six festivities are planned for 2025 in the six geopolitical regions across the country. We want to be able to use arts and crafts to mobilize and bring people out of their cocoons to a globally recognized platform. We want to create a sense of pride in the local creative industry,” he said.

Ajiboye said NICO is focused on driving the Made in Nigeria project as he noted that at the heart of the nationwide craft festival are talented youths, craftsmen and women who will be celebrated, promoted and marketed on a global platform.