President Bola Tinubu has assented to the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Bill, 2023.
DICON was established on 1st August 1964, by an Act of Parliament and revised as the DICON Act in Chapter 94 of the Laws of the Federation, 2004.
According to a statement on Thursday by presidential spokesman, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, DICON Act, 2023, repeals the previous iteration of the DICON Act and empowers the corporation to operate, maintain, and control subsidiaries and ordnance factories to manufacture, store, and dispose of ordnance and ancillary stores and material; and establish the Defence Industry Technology, Research, and Development Institute 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.
The new Act also empower DICON to orovide a comprehensive regulatory framework for the regulation of the manufacturing, distribution, storage, and disposal of defence articles in Nigeria; and incentivise 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.
Ngelale recalled that the DICON Bill, 2023 was sponsored by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Defence, Hon. Babajimi Benson (APC — Ikorodu federal constituency).
