Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has reassured of the Federal government’s readiness to continue rendering all the necessary support towards uplifting the people’s standard of living.
The Vice President gave this assurance on Thursday, in Kaduna at the unveiling of the Kaduna Investment Summit 6.0 with the theme : “Towards a sustainable knowledge-based economy”.
He lauded the efforts of the state government at promoting investments, stressing that this had brought prestige not only to Kaduna state but to Nigeria as a whole.
According to him, he had followed the state government’s progress as a result of the seriousness it had brought to sub-national governance in Nigeria.
He said that the policies and innovation in the state had clearly made it an exemplar and even the theme of the summit was a commendable development.
” With the focus, we must be developing a knowledge-based economy which is now human capital and knowledge driven and can be productive assets”, he said.
Osinbajo noted that a knowledge-based economy was capable of enhancing performance and all the benefits that can be derived from Agriculture, manufacturing and services.
The summit has become a platform that had been unveiled not only to market Kaduna, but Nigeria in general, as a compelling businesses destination for investment, the vice president said.
He said Gov. El-rufai’s efforts had clearly positioned the state to benefit maximally from the critical infrastructural development in the country.
Osinbajo described Kaduna state government’s policies as complementing those of the Federal government in creating millions of jobs and opportunities.
He noted that the state had become the business hub for future job creation and for the future of economic development, not only in Kaduna, but the country at large.
The vice president, however, warned we are very far from taking full advantage of our young people.
“The main problem is how to bridge the barrier to the knowledge economy, how to surmount the barriers to the knowledge economy.
” The first is the structure that provides incentives for entrepreneurship and use of knowledge, the second is the availability of skills, labour, a good educational system and access to information.
“And communication technology and ICT, while the fourth is a vibrant investing landscape that includes academia the private sector and civil society” he said.
He further emphasized that a knowledge economy has to be entirely dependent on intellectual capital and a knowledgeable work force.
In his remarks, the state governor Nasir El-rufai said the state had laid a foundation for the provision of over seven million jobs before 2050.
He explained that over 70 percent of the population in the state was below 30 years of age, hence the need for informed decisions on harnessing the potentials of this youthful human resource accordingly.
El-rufai disclosed that the state government had recorded tremendous successes in the previous editions of the investment summits, noting that efforts were being intensified to maintain the enviable position of the state as number one in ease of doing business in Nigeria.
As part of efforts to boost business activities and generate huge revenues for development, he said, the state government, therefore, decided to hold its sixth edition of the Economic and Investment Summit tagged KADINVEST 6.0.
He cited the summit as a platform for demonstrating that Kaduna state was open for business and committed to achieving sustainable economic growth by legislating to make it easier to do business, and aligning its budget to capital expenditures to build human capital and infrastructure.
El-rufai highlighted some of the achievements recorded since the first summit in 2016 to date to include the declaration of the state as number one in the ease of doing business in the country and placing fourth in terms of its level of internally generated revenue.
The governor stated that apart from the about three billion dollar investment, the state had been able to provide over one 100,000 direct and indirect jobs in the state. (NAN)
