 Let me say, again, how very pleased I am to be here. As I said once before, this professional organization, chapter of this video, Panthers, is the best professional acquisition, second only to the Nigeria Bar Association. I think that it is fair for them to accept that role. I am number two. I am number two. I am very wrong with that. I am the executive management of the Charity Museum of Panthers. Thank you very much for this kind invitation to join you on this commission of the Panthers House, Arfugia. I'm happy to see that the CIBM has almost 8-year vision to establish a present here in the Federal Capital Directory. Eventually comes up in this magnificent analysis that we have all. One that is indeed to fit of the institute's status. But perhaps more poignantly, a towering expression of your enduring commitment to excellence and to delivering value to the Nigerian economy over the decades. It is clear from what we see here today what the power of a collective vision that has driven all of what we see today can give rise to. We can see that this is the meaning of significant accomplishment. I wonder why we put so great premium on the resourcefulness and strength of our private sector. The CIBM's role and the private sector cannot be overspinning. In laying the parameters for professional and ethical conduct held in competition and continual professional development it has helped to guide the evolution of the banking industry but has grown to become the envy of the continent. Today Nigeria is trying already for new depths of economic growth and development with a population contributing to the largest market on the continent in spite of the demography of ambitious texts of young people accelerating digital integration and connecting to new markets we are now presented with an unprecedented opportunity to launch our nation into a new decade of sustained prosperity an opportunity that we are fully committed to as a government and we expect that we can translate those who believe the reality for millions of Nigeria's across the country to understand what the challenges are and to continue to raise them head on. We also understand that the realization of our country's potential at this crucial moment will require a careful choreography of government policy that will move everything together in the way of those who tell me to pursue their dreams and to build their businesses in the past six years we have aggressively pursued under the presidential environment the creation of an environment that allows Nigerian businesses at every level to operate without the workers without the drawbacks that are home to characterize their interface especially to government agencies and the government so building on the progress of these reforms and aggregating the lessons of the setbacks in this implementation we have doubled down now on Quebec on the 7th of February with our seven 60-day National Avenue which is described as NAP 7.0 on the ease of green business it is programmed to run from 7th of April 2022 all the way off to June we'll consolidate on the achievement in the removal of regulatory constraints around agro exports driving electrifying of taxes and working closely with the states to make their own business environment friendly as you know the focus of our the focus of our ease of green business has always been on trying to ensure that not just the federal government regulatory agencies but the states are also able to function optimally so that anyone doing business is done in the states will be able to register their businesses will be able to access all of the various approvals that are required, especially at the state level especially land approvals as quickly as possible Lagos and Cano in particular have been places where we've experimented and also for that but we think that in driving these reforms we'll be able to do even better in the coming months and years Historically, government has never lacked new plans so we understand the skepticism that sometimes attends the unveiling of new plans but we are committed to following through and to the demonstration of good faith every step of the way there's too much at stake here this largely informs the zero that has attended the implementation of our new national development plan 2021 to 2025 a medium term agenda that seeks to among other things generate 21 million full time jobs and lift 35 million people out of poverty by 2025 the plan commits the government at all levels to an investment of about 49.7 trillion and envisages private sector investment in the order of 298 trillion now making a total of 348 trillion now so clearly the success of the plan depends greatly on conscious reliance on the private sector so we are going to be relying heavily of course on the private sector when you look at what the federal government is able to do if you look at the entire size to the investment that say a dangote is making on the refinery you will see that the size of federal government or any government involvement in the economy is really quite minute it's really quite small so the private sector is the driver of the economy and we intend to ensure that whatever it takes in front with the robust investments in critical infrastructure roads, rail, power and broadband connectivity last year in our bid to close the current infrastructure deficit we invested an estimate of we estimated that the total investment in infrastructure will be about 300 billion so we invested in infrastructure that you all have heard about Infrapo is supposed to be a 15 trillion infrastructure enterprise and we are putting 1 trillion as seed capital at the moment implementation of that plan is expected to be supported by a range of fiscal and monetary policies and includes a more intentional promotion of productivity and value addition our country is set for great heights we are a nation as you know of great dreamers and great doers every time Nigeria has been expected to sink we have sought under our troubles we have drawn joy from the depths of despair and we found courage to keep going even in the most daunting challenges the Nigerian spirit remains on several years of some of the most severe macroeconomic challenges including the 2008 financial crisis the oil prices that follow an unexpected pandemic in the past the Nigerian banking industry owing largely to outstanding professionalism has continued to show incredible resilience and growth contributing about 34.6 trillion to the country's GDP in 2016, in 2017 37.8 trillion in 2020 in 2021 African start-ups raised over 4 billion US dollars in funding this is for about 564 start-ups Nigeria of all the 564 we contributed 35% of all of those 564 but this is across the continent Nigeria today has 6 unicorns these are tech companies valued at over 1 billion dollars each one of them flutter away it is even valued at 3 billion dollars all of them started after 2015 and they have grown between the nature of the resilience of the private sector we have the power of the acumen the nature of the determination and commitment of Nigerians especially young Nigerians the CIBN has remained a professional organization that believes completely in the strength, potential and future of the Nigerian economy and you have been faithful partners for decades in this country's economic journey and we are all immensely proud of the work that you have done and the indirect impact that the work of the CIBN has had on our economic and everyone who is here and those who are watching us virtually in celebrating the success of a patriotic and Nigeria centric organization a chartered institute of bankers Nigeria so we congratulate Dr. Vio Lubelli and his excellent team for their vision and for the moment or two to join me as we cut the ribbon to officially on the new bankers house of the chartered institute of bankers of Nigeria thank you very much everyone