The Nigerian military has been the subject of much criticism lately for their inability to handle the Boko Haram threat and corruption surrounding the importation of necessary weapons and equipment. In a speech on August 7 to the Nigerian Defense Academy, Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari has called for the re-engineering of the Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria (DICON) in the bid to cut down Nigeria’s dependence on imported arms and combat corruption in the military.*
DICON is primarily responsible for the manufacture of small arms and ammunition for the use of the Nigerian Army, as well as other local security agencies, but it also extends its capacity to produce machinery and spare parts for civilian use. Its technical partner is Poly Technologies Incorporated of China, and together they have manufactured different light weapons used by the Nigerian Armed Forces. Although it was established in 1964 as an Act of Parliament, DICON has been ‘under the radar’ as far as local manufacturing industries in the country go.
The Ministry of Defence has been directed by the president to produce a plan to establish a military industrial complex to see to the production of weapons, by liaising with the necessary strategic ministries, departments and agencies involved. He also charged the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to partner with DICON to ensure that already designed light weapons are manufactured.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
However, DICON has not necessarily been entirely inactive all this time. In 2004, the corporation successfully produced prototype medium range weapons, such as the 60mm mortar, the 81mm mortar, and the RPG-7. On January 24, 2012, it signed a joint venture agreement with Israeli firm Marom Dolphin (Nig.) Limited to operate a ballistic vest factory in Kaduna.
As of July 2015, DICON has commenced the production of the 7.62 x 39mm special ammunition cartridge in its facility in Kaduna. In addition to the above, here are 10 other weapons that DICON manufactures that you probably didn’t know that they did:
NR-Light Automatic Rifle (LAR)
(venturesafrica)