“I will like to see Nigeria become an industrialized nation in the next 10 years with a very strong middle class and most people living above poverty line.”
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who expressed such hope yesterday, June 18, at a Dinner and Interactive Session with some visiting Faculty Members from the Harvard Business School (HBS) in Lagos, said that the policies and programmes of the government of Muhammadu Buhari “are directed at achieving this objective.”
He emphasized that government has put in place, measures that will kick-start the industrialization drive of the country, citing the example of the creation of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and small manufacturing clusters across the country as some of the steps taken by government.
“Practically, everything we are doing is to ensure that there is a conducive environment for businesses to thrive.
“The Federal Government is looking at natural economic clusters. We have done a lot of work in five of them, we are looking at 23 others, and we have already set up shared facilities in designated locations to address some of the concerns in production.
“What we plan for the Special Economic Zones is also unique and geared towards that drive to industrialize our economy.”
On efforts to alleviate poverty, the Vice President said that it is being addressed by government, regretting that he has been having sleepless nights because of “extreme poverty in the country.
“The Federal Government is looking at natural economic clusters. We have done a lot of work in five of them, we are looking at 23 others, and we have already set up shared facilities in designated locations to address some of the concerns in production.
“What we plan for the Special Economic Zones is also unique and geared towards that drive to industrialize our economy.”
On efforts to alleviate poverty, the Vice President said that it is being addressed by government, regretting that he has been having sleepless nights because of “extreme poverty in the country.
“The point is that the largest number of those who voted for us are the very poor.
“The promises that government makes to them is that their lives will be better and obviously they are looking at their lives being better in the shortest possible time.”
He explained that a number of government policies and programmes were focused on people at the bottom of the pyramid, especially in agriculture and trade, and getting credit facilities to people in order to enable them improve in whatever they are doing.
He said that many farmers had been lifted out of poverty as a result of some of the initiatives, adding nonetheless that the scale needs to be improved.
“First, the focus of our government was on agriculture which has the potential to take many out of poverty. We are supporting farmers operating through the out-grower programme and our focus is to attain sufficiency in Rice, Sorghum and Millet production.
“A lot of attention has also been given to the Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) which factored the provision of cheap credit to petty traders—at the bottom of the pyramid. We have given out cheap credits through our TraderMoni and MarketMoni initiatives and this has also proven to be largely successful.”
On Power, Professor Osinbajo said that government is committed to finding lasting solutions to issues militating against the improvements that ought to have been witnessed in the sector.
“The issues are enormous but what we really need to do is to re-write regulations and encourage more people to invest in the sector.
“In the next few months, we will unveil a plan that deals with most of the critical issues in the power sector.”
“The promises that government makes to them is that their lives will be better and obviously they are looking at their lives being better in the shortest possible time.”
He explained that a number of government policies and programmes were focused on people at the bottom of the pyramid, especially in agriculture and trade, and getting credit facilities to people in order to enable them improve in whatever they are doing.
He said that many farmers had been lifted out of poverty as a result of some of the initiatives, adding nonetheless that the scale needs to be improved.
“First, the focus of our government was on agriculture which has the potential to take many out of poverty. We are supporting farmers operating through the out-grower programme and our focus is to attain sufficiency in Rice, Sorghum and Millet production.
“A lot of attention has also been given to the Social Investment Programmes (SIPs) which factored the provision of cheap credit to petty traders—at the bottom of the pyramid. We have given out cheap credits through our TraderMoni and MarketMoni initiatives and this has also proven to be largely successful.”
On Power, Professor Osinbajo said that government is committed to finding lasting solutions to issues militating against the improvements that ought to have been witnessed in the sector.
“The issues are enormous but what we really need to do is to re-write regulations and encourage more people to invest in the sector.
“In the next few months, we will unveil a plan that deals with most of the critical issues in the power sector.”
