Dr Olusegun Aganga, the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, on Thursday said that the Federal Government was working to create at least five million jobs by 2015. Aganga, who stated this in Ibadan at the opening of the 6th National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment (NCITI-06), said it would be achieved with industrialisation of the country.
According to him, the economic transformation of the country requires the support and contributions of every Nigerian.The Minister said the nation had in recent times became the number one investment destination in Africa, saying the country had grown by seven per cent in the last 14 years.
He said that Nigeria was now the number one destination for investment in Africa.“Now with that level of investment, we have received a lot of interest from different countries. Unprecedented level of delegations and investments had trade missions to Nigeria than we have ever had in our history.
“The President of Indonesia was here with 100 businessmen a few weeks ago and before then the President of Brazil with another 50 businessmen.“The Poland President came not too long ago and said his feelings about Nigeria has not been this higher. I think it is time to do something in Nigeria,’’ he said.
The minister said the ongoing efforts of the government was to provide institutions that would drive industrialisation, adding that the nation was now less dependent on imported goods.“For the first time as the Minister, I have not issued any licence for the importation of cement and some other major commodities.“For decades, we rely solely on oil and gas, but now government has made the diversification of the economy a priority.“I am very confident that with each of you working together, the nation would be delivered,’’ he said.
Mr Adebayo Olagbenro, Oyo State Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Investments, said that the meeting would strengthen the Federal and State Governments to achieve the Transformation Agenda. Olagbenro said that the institutional framework at achieving desirous results of good governance was being strengthened daily by the state government.He said that the state government had achieved a lot through Public- Private Partnership (PPP) it had with the Bank of Industry, SMEDAN and the South West integration programme.
Gov. Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State said that government would ensure that whatever investment it embarked on would manifest in the quality of life of the citizenry. Ajimobi urged government to always take into cognizance the skills of the citizenry employed at all levels rather than the much emphasis on paper qualifications.He said the poor economic growth of the nation could be attributed to superstitious beliefs, attitude of the people and lack of continuity in government. Ajimobi expressed the commitment of his administration to the transformation of the state as well as the improvement in the quality of life of the people.
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