Governor Ambode speaks on Nigerian economy

 
Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has applauded President Muhammadu Buhari for the decisions he has taken in the face of the current economic challenges.

The Lagos state governor expressed optimism that the foreign exchange crisis plaguing the country which has resulted in Naira depreciating considerably low against the Dollar is solvable. He however advocated for the development of local manufacturing as a way of developing the economy.


Ambode said this on February 23 at the Lagos House in Ikeja when he received the managing director of Nigerian breweries Plc, Mr. Nicolas Vervelde, who was on a courtesy visit.

He commended the strategies adopted so far by President Buhari to address the challenges confronting the economy, and solicited the support of all Nigerians in ensuring the success of the current efforts of the federal government. He said: “The issues at stake are more about a short term deficiency that we are experiencing in the economy.

We don’t believe that the issue of foreign exchange will last forever and it is something that is solvable but then, it is a pointer to the fact that there has to be some kind of structural adjustment in this economy and everybody has to start to look inward.

“The Lagos breweries of the Nigerian Breweries Plc is a hundred percent Nigerian outfit which is the kind of examples that we expect from businesses to ensure that we start to create a structure that allows Nigerians to own businesses by ourselves and do things that are made in Nigeria so that we can free up as much as possible the forex that we demand all the time and that is why we all are committed to supporting President Buhari in the things that he is doing, which we know that ultimately in the medium term, a lot of Nigerians will appreciate what is being done.”

“We know that if we have a safer Lagos, it creates more opportunities for your investment to thrive and it also creates job opportunities for our people and within that context, we will be able to get more revenue as taxes and also improve upon infrastructure and allow the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Lagos to grow and so we have that commitment that we will improve on whatever it is that we are doing and ensure ease of doing business.”