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Vice President, Kashim Shettima has reaffirmed President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s commitment to tackling infrastructure gaps and erosion issues in the Southeast region.
Shettima stated this on Thursday, during the launching of the 5th Expanded National Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Clinic in Enugu, and announced grants of N150,000 for outstanding MSMEs in the state.
Shettima praised the Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah’s impressive performance in transforming Enugu, lifting its residents out of poverty and fostering economic growth.
He noted that under Mbah’s leadership, Enugu has undergone significant positive changes in a short period.
“Until the emergence of Governor Peter Mbah, Enugu was a sleepy town that didn’t even have water supply.
“So, Your Excellency, we want to thank you. We want to commend you. We want to identify with you. Honestly, I’m quite pleased to be in your midst this afternoon. We’ve had some very fruitful discussions with the honourable speaker,” he said.
While lamenting that erosion was already affecting the livelihood of Nigerians in the region, Shettima disclosed that the president had concluded plans to have discussions with the national assembly and the governors of the Southeast in order to come up with a workable solution to permanently deal with the erosion within the region.
He said: “The problems of the Southeast are problems of infrastructural deficit; problems of erosions that are affecting the very livelihood of our people.
“We’ve made arrangements with him(speaker). We will sit with the leadership of the national assembly. We’ll sit with the governors of the South East and come up with a whole solution to deal with the erosion especially, in the states like Anambra and Abia, and even Enugu is not left out of this scourge of erosion. These are issues that need practical solutions.
“In all honesty in terms of governance, we’ve never had it so good in the South East like the current dispensation. We have to sustain that brotherhood, that relationship for the good of our people. Through development, through investments in education, we can change the narratives from negativity to positivity.
“The President told me that I must come to Enugu and assure the good people of Enugu that our government must do whatever we can to support the people of the Southeast.”
Similarly, he noted that Enugu holds a special place in the heart of Tinubu and the South East, saying that this led to the passing of the South East Development Commission into law and his quick assent to the bill and the headquarters of the SEDC is here in Enugu.
“Energy is a sinequanon for any industrial growth. Without power, we’ll forget about industrialisation. To this effect, Mr. President picked a daughter of Abia State, Engr. Jennifer Adighije, as the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company of Nigeria, championed the course of lighting up the South East.
“Again, the governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah is humble and hardworking. Let’s put politics aside, Mbah means well for the people of Enugu State.
“I was especially enamoured of his security projects. I was pleased by his investment in supplying water to parts of the state capital and most importantly, education is the game changer.
“Within a generation we have honored a celebrated icon and his investment in smart education yielding a bountiful harvest in the coming years. And he is one of the very few chief executive officers who are versatile with potentialities of the IT industry.”
He said he is impressed by what he has seen so far in Enugu and overwhelmed by the giant strides recorded by the governor and his team.
“He has embraced modernity. He has embraced digital technology. Most of the things I saw are urban guard technology, state-of-the-art security infrastructure. Beautiful road network. He is doing excellently well and he is worthy to be emulated by other governors across the length and breadth of this nation.
“He is humble and a very sellable person. He is doing well and the world needs to know what he is doing. Honestly, I have learnt a lot. I will come back to learn more about smart education. I am obsessed with education and so is the governor.
“We will see how we can partner because we are now in the phase of development. Politics is over. We have to collate into a single force and face the challenges of under development in our nation,” Shettima said.
The Vice President, who reiterated the federal government’s support for MSMEs, noted that the N150,000 grant “is an outright grant that does not require beneficiaries to repay.
“Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has mandated that a grant of N150,000 each be awarded to outstanding exhibiting MSMEs at today’s event.
“Rest assured that this is an outright grant, and the beneficiaries will not need to repay it.”
He said that, as the very lifeblood of the nation’s economy, the MSMEs sub-sector had remained a top priority of the Tinubu administration, “contributing more to the economy and our GDP. The governor is actively with the Office of the Vice President to see that we have given them the desired attention and resources and support.
“Rest assured, in the coming months and years, we will see change in the MSMEs across the length and breadth of Enugu and the nation at large.”
Mbah, hailed the Vice President for being a champion of MSMEs’ growth in Nigeria, noting that, had only moments earlier, commissioned the Enugu state Fashion and Garment Hub, a facility developed by the Office of the Vice President in partnership with the Enugu state Government through the Enugu SME Centre.
He said the Expanded National MSME Clinics came as a gift of priceless value to young entrepreneurs in Enugu State and beyond because almost 90 percent of businesses in the country are small scale.
“So, MSMEs are clearly the backbone and lifeblood of our economy.
But as important as MSMEs may be, their success is no chance. They thrive only through careful policies that enhance the ease-of-doing-business climate, comprising key enablers like the sustained provision of infrastructure, security, efficient legal and regulatory framework, among others.
“And we simply cannot thank the federal government enough for that. This programme syncs perfectly with our economic vision.
“The Expanded National MSME Clinics, organized by the Federal Government in collaboration with Enugu State, provide a dynamic platform for MSMEs to access essential support from government agencies and private sector stakeholders,” he averred.
