Local content: Firms asked to audit expatriates

The federal government has asked companies to submit details of expatriates working for them as the push for local content intensifies.

Announcing this on Sunday, the Special Ministerial Task Force on Monitoring and Enforcement of Nigerian Expatriate Business Permit and Expatriate Quota Administration, said the government is ready to sanction companies that failed to comply with the law guiding the employment of qualified Nigerians as understudy for expatriates.

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The task force directed companies to submit the Tax Identification Number (TIN), National Identification Numbers (NIN), phone number and email addresses of Nigerians understudying expatriates in the firms.

According to the chairman of the task force, Mr Bola Ilori, this decision was reached during its meeting with representatives of the Nigerian Immigration Service, Nigeria Labour Congress; Nigerian Bar Association, the Nigerian Society of Engineers, other professional bodies and officials of the Ministry of Interior.

Speaking to reporters in Ibadan, Ilori was concerned that some companies employed Nigerians with school certificates to understudy the expatriates who are managers, apparently showing they were not ready to transit the role to the Nigerians.

“How can a school certificate holder understudy a manager?”