President Goodluck Jonathan has said that power supply in Nigeria will be among the best 20 in the world in the next eight years.
The president gave the assurance on Thursday in Lagos at the 40th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).
Represented by Dr Samuel Ortom, Minister of State for Trade and Investment, he said, “we will do everything possible to address the structural weaknesses standing between us and revolutionising the power sector.
“Some of the problems are deep, but not beyond the government. We are currently reviewing the lapses in the power sector to make it one of the best in the world in the year 2020.
“Nigeria is on the threshold of history, ready to join the world economic powers in the very near future.''
He also said that the emphasis of government was to promote the processing of the nation’s natural resources for consumable commodities.
The president said that this would also beef up “our export portfolio'', adding that Nigeria could not continue to import more than it exported.
He said that the government’s effort at attracting local and foreign investors into the economy was yielding positive results.
“More than 16,000 local and foreign investors have registered their intentions to do business worth about N6.6 trillion in just one year,” he said.
The president lauded the MAN’s blueprint to boost the sector, assuring them that the considerations of the blueprint would be highly valued by the government and put to work.
He said, “It will be the impetus for industrial revolution, which we desire to see as a nation.''
The MAN President, Mr Kola Jamodu, said that the manufacturing sector was one of the most powerful engines for economic growth and a catalyst for transformation of the nation’s economic structure.
“Manufacturing, when driven by modern technology, has higher growth prospects, acts as antidote for unemployment, creates wealth and is the threshold for sustainable development,” he said.
Jamodu said that MAN recognised the bold vision for the manufacturing sector as contained in the Vision 20:2020.
He, therefore, called for the accelerated development of manufacturing sector in Nigeria to complement the vision of government. (NAN)
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