Major General Sule U. Labaran
The Defense Industry Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) has sought for the assistance of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) in the area of investments training for their staff in preparation for its partnership initiatives with prospective investors.
Speaking during a visit to NIPC in Abuja, the Director General of DICON, Major General Sule U. Labaran said the corporation already has investors on queue who are ready to partner with it, adding that in the next two to three weeks, they are expecting a delegation of about 15 companies from Turkey who are interested in defense related issues.
“For us in DICON to be able to discuss with these people, we need to have some form of human capacity development to put us in proper position. We have operated more like a civil service organization rather than investment company that we want to create to make profit for the government and also provide employment for the people.
“We need to open up, discuss with people who have the money to invest and that is why we need to have the training to get our people properly educated on the tools of investment,” he said.
He explained that DICON was set up by an act of parliament in 1964 to produce arms and ammunition for the armed forces and other security agencies in Nigeria, adding that the act specifically said DICON most operate as a commercial entity but has not been able to do that due to several factors.
“For the past three-four years, the government has put a lot of money in DICON to make sure that we functions and also charged us to look for partners who will bring money and partner with us to develop our equipment for arms production for the armed forces of Nigeria and also our sister neighbouring countries.
“This is quite a very large industry that can employ thousands of Nigerians if fully developed and that is our hope; the reason why we feel this step we are taking today to come to NIPC will open up this avenues for us,” he said.
