Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, on Tuesday, commended the strategies adopted, so far, by President Muhammadu Buhari, to address the challenges confronting the economy, and solicited the support of all Nigerians in ensuring that they succeeded.
The Governor spoke at the Lagos House in Ikeja, while playing host to the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Nicolas Vervelde, who was on a courtesy visit, with senior management staff of the company.
He said that though the nation was going through lean times at the moment, he believed that it was a temporary setback that would be overcome by the President and his team, including, indeed, all those who have been elected into office to serve in this government, who see salvaging the economy as a collective responsibility and a duty owed the people.
He expressed optimism that the foreign exchange crisis plaguing the country, which has resulted in Naira depreciating considerably low against the Dollar, could resolved, but that the country must look inward and start to embrace massive local manufacturing of products and local ownership of businesses.
Ambode said the deficiency which Nigeria is currently experiencing in the economy, as a result of the forex challenges, was a pointer to the fact that all hands must be on deck to carry out some kind of structural adjustment on the economy and encourage the manufacturing of products needed by Nigerians in Nigeria.
He said the Nigerian Breweries had shown a very good example of encouraging local ownership of businesses, especially with the transformation of the Lagos branch of the company to a totally Nigerian outfit, urging other foreign investors in the country to look toward such direction.
“The issues at stake are more about a short term deficiency that we are experiencing in the economy. We don’t believe that the issue of foreign exchange will last forever ,and it is something that is solvable but, then, it is a pointer to the fact that there has to be some kind of structural adjustment in this economy and everybody has to start to look inward.
“The Lagos breweries of the Nigerian Breweries Plc is a hundred percent Nigerian outfit, which is the kind of examples that we expect from businesses to ensure that we start to create a structure that allows Nigerians to own and run businesses of their own, and do things that are made in Nigeria, so that we can free up, as much as possible, the forex that we demand all the time. And that is why we all are committed to supporting President Buhari in the things that he is doing, which we know that, ultimately in the medium term, a lot of Nigerians will appreciate what is being done,” Ambode said.
He also reiterated the commitment of his administration to always create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive, especially by placing much priority on the safety of lives and property and improving on the infrastructure in the state.
“We know that if we have a safer Lagos, it creates more opportunities for your investment to thrive and it also creates job opportunities for our people. Within that context, we will be able to get more revenue as taxes and, also, improve upon infrastructure and allow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Lagos to grow. We have that commitment that we will improve on whatever it is that we are doing and ensure some appreciable ease of doing business,” he said.
