National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has urged governments at all levels in the country to support strategic industries capable of employing large numbers of young people so as to harness the productive capacity and boundless energy within the population.
He gave the advice on Thursday while delivering his paper titled: “Global Trends: The Rightful Place of Nigeria in the World” at the 25th Convocation Lecture of the Lagos State University, (LASU), in Ojo.
Tinubu, who was represented at the lecture by the Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, stated that giving adequate backing to manufacturing and industry will open wider doors to youth-owned startup businesses and serve to support extant firms and industries.
While stressing the need to reform the nation to improve the economic prospects of young people, Tinubu said that National industrial and employment policies must jump from the pages of documents and come to real life.
Asiwaju said higher institutions of learning in the country must link formal education with the skills and expertise the business community seeks in the coming years, saying: “We need to bring organised business together with our education sector so they can develop curricula that meet the needs of business while still providing the broad education required to create civic-minded citizens”.
He reiterated the importance of adequate infrastructure in every sector of the economy and called for a massive national infrastructure plan, noting that no economy can grow beyond the capacity of its infrastructure to service itself.
According to him, there is a need to enact reforms necessary to power businesses and homes at affordable prices as electrical power is the fulcrum of the nation’s development.
Other reforms proffered by the former Governor of Lagos State include increased food production while lowering consumer prices, giving farmers more access to credit by loosening mortgage requirements and providing greater leeway to execute forward contracts on their crops.
He also recommended the need to improve rural roads network and fund refrigeration systems for use by farmers and merchants in major local markets in each State to combat food spoilage, adding that water catchment systems and small scale irrigation projects must take hold to mitigate the consequence of droughts and floods while also providing water for year-round agriculture.
On Real Estate Reforms, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu said economic potentials in urban areas can be unlocked by ensuring that mortgage institutions are revised and better-financed to provide affordable residential mortgages to young people just entering the workforce.
No comments:
Post a Comment