President Bola Tinubu has assented to the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Bill, 2023.
This information is contained in a State House Release issued by Ajuri Ngelale, the Special Adviser to the President on Media & Publicity, on Thursday, November 23, 2023, and can be seen on the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of Fredrick Nwabufo, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement.
The statement explained that the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria was established on August 1, 1964, by an Act of Parliament and revised as the DICON Act in Chapter 94 of the Laws of the Federation, 2004.
The DICON Bill, 2023, which President Tinubu approved was sponsored by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Defence, Hon. Babajimi Benson (APC Ikorodu Federal Constituency).
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The statement explained that the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria Act, 2023, has henceforth repealed the previous iteration of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria Act.
The DICON Act, 2023, consequently empowers the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria to:
- Operate, maintain, and control subsidiaries and ordnance factories to manufacture, store, and dispose of ordnance and ancillary stores and materials.
- Establish the Defence Industry Technology, Research, and Development Institute (DITRDI) to create an elaborate scientific and research-based technological foundation for Nigeria’s defence industry through the leveraging of combined, multi-disciplinary research from multiple military research institutes for application that leads to commercialization and the development of new military technology and capacity in Nigeria.
- Provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for the regulation of the manufacturing, distribution, storage, and disposal of defence articles in Nigeria.
- Incentivize the development of a nuanced financing architecture that enables private capital to facilitate research, development, and production in the defence sector in a transparent and predictable fashion.
