Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says a major feature of Nigeria’s economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic as indicated in the Economic Sustainability Plan currently being implemented is the openness to new and creative ideas, all in a bid to save jobs, protect businesses, and attract new investments.
Osinbajo stated this on Tuesday during a webinar with some French business leaders under the auspices of the Franco-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The Vice President noted that part of what the Buhari administration had done in its response to the pandemic was to “build a business environment that will be supportive of domestic and foreign investors.”
He said “it is important to recognize that the pandemic, which really is the cause of the downturn, not just in the Nigerian economy, but practically economies, all over the world, except perhaps China, also provides incredible opportunities for doing all manner of very innovative, and creative things.
“And I think that we are in a season where we are ready to experiment and ready to do a lot more. And if you look at our Economic Sustainability Plan, which is our response to the pandemic, what we tried to do was to do a few things that we thought would be game changing.”
The Vice President said private sector commitment need to align wih the Federal Government’s backward integration policy.
He said “for us, the issue of backward integration is right, front and centre, and it has been so for many years. We believe that aggressive pursuit of it is really important for us as an economic policy.”
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Participants at the forum include Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Niyi Adebayo; The Executive Secretary and CEO of Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), Yewande Sadiku; the French Ambassador to Nigeria, Jérôme Pasquier; Chairman of the Board of the Franco-Nigeria Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Usman Mohammed and representatives of some French companies operating in Nigeria including Total Nigeria, Air France, Kwik Delivery, among others.
Editor Paul Akhagbemhe
