Investment, industry, commerce, integral parts of our economic recovery – Buhari

Kaduna

The promotion of industry, commerce, agriculture and competitiveness is key to the recovery and growth of the Nigerian economic, following recent recession, President Muhammadu Buhari has said.
Addressing opening ceremony of the 39th Kaduna International Trade Fair at the trade fair complex with the theme: “Promoting Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for International Competitiveness”, at the weekend, President Muhammadu Buhari said his government’s economic recovery plan is anchored on promoting growth, inclusive growth and competitiveness.
The President, who was represented by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Ekechukwu Enelamah, urged Nigerians to take advantage of the fair to grow their businesses. Buhari said that the country is facing challenges steering the economy towards global economic integration through trade liberalization, efficient and effective mechanism for conflict.
“One of the priority of government is agriculture, creating right enabling environment for business, for SME, for our citizen and for our investors to thrive. We must therefore gird our loins to face the challenges of global trade through adhering to best practices.
Nigeria’s economy is influenced by boThexternal and internal factors like any other country operating within the present global setting.
“At the domestic front, there are challenges of nurturing a stable democracy founded on respect for the rule of law, security of lives and property, adequate supply of power and energy, infrastructure, judicious management of national resources, all essential for creating the enabling environment for private sector participation in the economy.”
Addressing the event, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, who was represented by his Deputy, Arch. Bala Bantex, urged businessmen and women to take advantage of the trade fair to showcase their goods and services. He noted that the fair is aimed at encouraging local and foreign businessmen to showcase to the world new products, innovations and business ideas that will strengthen the economy.
“We have attracted so many local and foreign investments to the state within the last two and a half years of our administration and are still doing a lot to attract as many businesses to the state because that is the surest way of generating employment to the teeming youths and to equally boost the economy thereby generating more revenue for the state,” Bantex said.
According to Governor el-Rufai, “the Kaduna state government is happy to support the initiatives of Kadccima through concrete policy action that are improving the ease of doing business and attracting investors to set up new ventures in Kaduna. The concrete outcome of the state government’s annual economic and investment summit, Kadinvest are becoming manifest with landmark projects like Olam.
“And we are eager to see more small and medium scale businesses thrive. We have the example of Tomato Jos, which is starting a tomato factory with ultimate plans to set up a factory to process what it gets from its own farms and partner farms. It is no secret that agriculture is the leading investment sector, given the comparative advantage our state posseses in this sphere. But our mining footprint is growing, as are investment in housing, ICT and solar power,” the Governor said.
The National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Iyalode Alaba Lawson urged the state government to continue to support investments in the state’s economy, especially the private sector and the country at large.

Leave a Reply