It’s unhealthy and unsustainable for content in Nigeria’s information and communications technologies to be dominated by foreigners, Nigerian Vice President Namadi Sambo said Tuesday in Abuja, according to a report in TheGuardian.

Nigeria wants global technology companies such as Microsoft, Intel, HP, Oracle and Google to support its new local content policy on ICT, the report said.

The policy calls for a 50 percent target of local Nigerian ICT content. It will help Nigeria eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable economic development, said Omobola Johnson, Nigeria’s minister of communication technology. She spoke Tuesday at an e-Nigeria Conference, according to HumanIPO.

Nigeria consumes more ICT than it produces, resulting in a “negative trade balance” between locally produced and foreign ICT products, Sambo said.

Johnson said the new content guidelines will help the local ICT industries achieve national development targets. She said the policy will stimulate and increase production, sales and consumption of high-quality IT products and services developed by indigenous companies that serve the needs of the local and global market, according to BizTecAfrica.

None of the three reports said if – or how – the government plans to impose or monitor the content guidelines.