The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has announced that local production of military and paramilitary clothing would commence in January 2023.
The production project is a joint venture Public-Private Partnership (PPP) between the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) and Sur Corporate Wear to develop the Sur Corporate Wear Nig. Ltd., according to the ICRC in Abuja.
The DICON Sur cooperation will be in charge of creating uniforms for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Police, Civil Defense, and other military and paramilitary units over a 20-year concession period.
In a meeting convened by the ICRC, the Commission’s Acting Director-General, Michael Ohiani, urged all project partners to resolve any obstacles impeding the factory’s completion and report back to the Commission within one week.
All project stakeholders were charged during the rescheduled meeting, which was chaired by Dr. Jobson Ewalefoh, Director of the ICRC’s Contract Compliance Department (CCD), to guarantee that the project was completed on time.
According to Ewalefoh, the project is critical to the country since it will reduce capital flight, create over 920 employment, and give the country pride in producing its own uniforms.
He went on to say that as the project proceeds, the DICON Sur joint venture will start sourcing all of its raw materials from Nigeria.
“We are all proud of the fact that we manufacture our military and paramilitary clothing here in the United States.” It is a pride that we must all maintain. Sudan is producing its military equipment, and I am confident that DICON can do so with the necessary support,” he stated.
He informed all stakeholders that the ICRC will work with all appropriate government agencies as part of its regulatory responsibility to expedite the continuing process of getting approval for off takers when production begins in January.
He intimated that the ICRC’s Contract Compliance Department (CCD) would make the DICON Sure Project a priority in the future and would closely monitor its progress until it was completed.
He promised that the ICRC would continue to intervene to ensure the smooth operation of PPP projects.
Burhan Can Karabulut, Managing Director of Sur Corporate Wear Nig. Ltd., spoke at the interactive meeting and praised the ICRC management for intervening and ensuring that the project was brought back on schedule and would now be hitch-free moving forward.
He also praised the investors, saying that as a result of the ICRC’s intervention and the subsequent meeting of stakeholders, the investor had decided to provide cash for the project’s completion.
He claimed that the company had increased the completion rate to 68 percent thus far, and that the remaining money for the project will be received very soon in order to fulfill the deadline.
“If work resumes in July, we should be able to start commissioning in January,” he said, “but commissioning will not be 100% production this January.”
However, he stated that the uniform designs had not yet been approved, and as a result, the company was unable to get raw materials for production, underlining that production could not begin without the approval.
