Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has assured the business community of his commitment towards a double digit Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for the country.
He highlighted an uninterrupted power supply as a vital component to grow Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to double digit.
He said this at a town hall meeting with the business community and members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The platform afforded business leaders, and captains of industry, the economic players and thought leaders in the private sector the opportunity to interact with the presidential candidate and interrogate his action plan for the country.
Tinubu also reiterated the importance of the removal of the fuel subsidy at the 7th edition of the Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit (KadInvest 7.0) last month.
At the meeting were President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc., Jim Ovia; Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu; former Chief Executive of Access Bank, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede; and Group Chief Executive of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe.
Other business leaders from agriculture, oil and gas, trade, manufacturing and creative sector, among others, were also present.
Tinubu disclosed his plan to increase productivity in agriculture and bring the nation’s industrial policy to life.
He said: “We shall bring the nation’s industrial policy to life. Key to this is our aim to create major and minor industrial hubs in each geopolitical zone.
“We shall not be satisfied by bolstering traditional sectors; we will foster productive excellence in new areas such as light manufacturing and the entertainment sector.
“We shall continue to press reforms in the agriculture sector that will increase productivity, improve farm incomes while lowering food prices and bringing enough food to the tables of ordinary people.”
On his plan to improve the lots of the power sector, the former Lagos State Governor said that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) will be unbundled.
Tinubu vowed to sustain the efforts of the Buhari’s administration in tackling the insecurity bedevilling the country.
“We shall continue the fight against insecurity by redefining our counter-insurgency doctrine and practice.
“Our response to terror, kidnapping and violent criminality will be defined by the following elements – we shall enlist more people in the armed forces, security services and the police; our forces will be given better tactical communications, mobility as well as improved aerial and ground surveillance capacity.
“Through these and other measures, we shall better identify, monitor, track, and defeat these evil groups where they are. They shall have no respite until they surrender or are utterly defeated,” he said.
Tinubu recounted how he transformed Lagos into the economically prosperous city it is today, emphasizing that such can be replicated nationwide.
He said: “Lagos is an appropriate venue for this meeting. You may have heard that I was once governor of this dynamic economic force.
“However, may I remind you that when I first entered the office, Lagos was a different story; my team and I developed a blueprint, a master plan, for Lagos. I can say that plan has been largely successful.
“We turned this state into a safer, more prosperous place where people can go about any legitimate vocation or venture regardless of their ethnicity, religion, region or prior social station.
“We did more than open Lagos for business. We opened the door for all Nigerians to join and experience the decent things progressive democratic governance can bring. We were not perfect but we did a lot.
“In doing so, we worked for hand in hand with the business community as partners sharing the same goals of prosperity and renewed hope.
“Well, as you might have heard at some point recently, I now stand before you, seeking a bigger yet similar job.”