Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has promised small entrepreneurs of the government determination to remove bottlenecks, especially in financing the agro-allied products in Nigeria.
“And so we are looking at how to remove the bottlenecks in many of the situations that we see, so certainly we are going to be working on this.”
Vice President Osinbajo, who spoke to news men today, Friday, after going round various exhibition stands at the on-going SME Conference 2016 in Abuja, said: “one of the things we have assured a lot of those exhibiting today is that we are going to be working with them day by day to see that they achieve all of their objectives.”
He expressed happiness and excitement on the products on displayed, adding: “it is very good see so many Nigerian entrepreneurs in agro-business and the sheer creativity and all of what you are seeing here, the great enthusiasm. It is so interesting to see so many people who are investing in agro-business, working hard every day.
“I have seen an incredible variety of agro- business entrepreneurship here today and I am really excited about all these. I think that one of the key things that we have seen are some of the bottlenecks especially in financing some of these products and some of what these people are doing.
“And so, we are looking at how to remove the bottlenecks in many of the situations that we see, so certainly we are going to be working on this.
Myself and the Hon. Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, we have been round and we’ve seen for ourselves some of what needs to be done and one thing that we have assured a lot of those who are exhibiting here today is that we are going to be working with them day-by-day to see that they achieve all of their objectives.
“One of the main objectives of course is that they will be able to export, they will be able to export in large quantities and we have an advantage now with the Naira situation, as a major export advantage.
“So I think that we must take advantage of that and several of these local producers are taking advantage (of the situation of the Naira) and they are able to export at very competitive prices, so we are looking forward to even bigger export levels. So, I think what has happened here is just incredible.”
The SME Conference 2016 holding at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Abuja is themed: “Businesses and Franchises.” It is jointly hosted by the Nigerian-American Chambers of Commerce, Kaduna State government and the Embassy of the United States of America. [myad]
