Nigeria gets bullet proof vest factory

President Goodluck Jonathan has commissioned the Defence Industry Corporation of Nigeria (DICON), a company that will be manufacturing bullet proof vest for the military and other security agents.  
The President at the commissioning in Kaduna, commended the Public Private Partnership (PPP) between DICON and MAROM-DOLPHIN Nigeria Limited which resulted in the domestic production of the bullet proof vests and other textile wares for security agencies in the country.
President Jonathan noted that the landmark event shows that the military establishment has effectively keyed into the federal government’s Local Content Policy which is aimed at building indigenous capacity in the petroleum and other sectors of the national economy.”
The President restated his administration’s commitment “to creating the requisite enabling environment for local manufacturing industries to grow, become major employers of labour and progressively become globally competitive.”
Noting that the Nigerian Navy has locally designed and constructed Seaward Defence Boat, just as the Nigerian Army Engineering Corps produced an Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), the president stated that these are part of activities marking the 2012 Nigerian Army Day Celebrations (NADCEL).
He added that this year’s celebration coupled with the creation of the army and navy marks the beginning of the end of the nation’s total reliance on foreign suppliers for the country’s security needs.
While urging all Nigerians to show patriotism by buying DICON products, President Jonathan indicated that a directive would soon be issued to compel all Federal agencies to patronise DICON unless they can prove convincingly that such products are not available locally.
“That is the only way we can move as a nation,” he said, while calling on other foreign investors to emulate MAROM-DOLPHIN.
President Jonathan accompanied by the governors of Kaduna and Bayelsa States, Ministers, members of the National Assembly and the Chief of Defence Staff among other top government officials, also inspected weapons made by DICON-MAROM.
DICON was established by an Act of Parliament in 1964 to primarily “produce small arms and ammunitions for the use of the Nigerian Army, paramilitary and security agencies in the country.”