By ISMAIL ABDULAZIZ

President Bola Tinubu has assented to the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) Bill (2023).

The DICON Act (2023) empowers the corporation to operate, maintain, and control subsidiaries and ordnance factories to manufacture, store, and dispose of ordnance and ancillary stores and materials.

It allows DICON to establish the Defence Industry Technology, Research, and Development Institute to create an elaborate scientific and research-based technological foundation for Nigeria’s defence industry.

This would be done through the leveraging of combined, multi-disciplinary research from multiple military research institutes for application that leads to commercialisation and the development of new military technology and capacity.

The 2023 Act also empowers DICON to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for the regulation of themanufacturing, distribution, storage, and disposal of defence articles in Nigeria.

The Act empowers DICON to 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.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, confirmed the president’s assent in a statement he issued on Thursday in Abuja.

The DICON Bill (2023) was sponsored at the National Assembly by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Defence, Hon. Babajimi Benson (APC- Ikorodu).

The 2023 bill repeals the revised DICON Act in Chapter 94 of the Laws of the Federation (2004).

DICON was established on Aug. 1, 1964 by an Act of Parliament. (NAN)