 Thank you very much. It was an East European Prime Minister who said when you as a public official visit or attend a business meeting or summit such as this and you get the very cold applause that I got it means that you have either introduced a bad tax or you're about to introduce one both both I might say that I might be guilty of that possibility so I nevertheless thank you very much for the very kind reception now that really looks like an inducement not to introduce a bad tax thank you very much for the kind invitation to be here and my gratitude also to members of the chamber for the very warm welcome I'm honored to have this opportunity to engage with this very distinguished gathering of business leaders and investors such is the dynamism quality and caliber of the membership of the chamber that your views are considered crucial in national economic policy discourses and processes but let me set the tone for this dialogue this morning by this afternoon now by stating right away that it is imperative and we consider it as a government imperative to restore Nigeria to the path of faster growth in 2020 2021 2022 and beyond this is and this is important not just in order to fully recover from the effects of recession largely caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is also essential because we need a growth rate that is faster than current population growth so that there is at least enough to go around but these development ambitions as you know are vulnerable to local and global events so as we cope with the fallouts of the COVID-19 pandemic we also have to factor in the need to mitigate and adapt to climate change and and this point has been made very eloquently by the president of the chamber and the relentless march of the digital economy and of course the fourth industrial revolution as we all know the COVID-19 pandemic precipitated not only a global health crisis but it also triggered a socioeconomic crisis that affected every part of the world for us it was clear it was clear that we were facing a near disaster gtp contracted as you are very familiar to the tune of about minus 6.10 percent during the second quarter of 2020 all price at one point was about ten dollars a barrel and of course it was almost less than the cost of production and then finally settled at about 45 dollars a barrel during the second quarter of 2020 unemployment went up to 33.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020 the transportation sector declined by 49 percent hospitality by 40 percent education declined by 24 percent trade declined by 17 percent construction which of course is a big area for us by 40 percent now in response to this the president directed that I should set up a team of ministers and interagency heads and agency heads to develop a 12 month economic emergency plan which became known as the economic sustainability plan we were clear that the only way of avoiding an economic disaster that could last for years was for government to essentially put forward a major fiscal stimulus plan so we put in place a stimulus plan in the order of our 2.3 trillion naira half of that was was going to be in the form of credit to various sectors of the economy the plan the economic sustainability plan emphasized rapid health interventions keeping businesses going creating and protecting jobs boosting local production and providing social protection for the most vulnerable the most vulnerable sections of our society the plan also included a suite of macroeconomic policies including fiscal grants tax breaks regulatory for barons to banks as well as reduced interest and moratorium on cbn intervention facilities amongst other actions in addition the plan created what we named the MSME survival fund which was designed to keep as many junior private sector workers as possible employed and paid while within a period of three months during the course of the of what we regarded as the most critical period after the pandemic struck up to about 1.1 million people benefited from this particular intervention these interventions paid off as we had a very short recession and we're now seeing a rebound in economic activity with growth at about 5.01 percent in the second quarter of this year and 4.03 percent in the third quarter now it's clear to us that I mean there are all sorts of people who say all sorts of things oh about the growth as base effect is this and that but I think the important thing is what do we do going forward and I think it's clear to us that if we are to achieve accelerated growth then we must adopt a new strategic direction and policy orientation so it was with this objective in mind that the federal executive council recently signed off on the new medium term national development plan that's the 2021 to 2025 plan to which the president of the chamber had referred the strategic objectives of the medium term plan include establishing a strong foundation for a diversified economy investing in critical infrastructure enabling human capital development and improving governance and strengthening security now the implementation of the plan is expected to be sustained by a range of measures fiscal monetary and trade measures including of course as you've also heard reformation of subsidy regimes and a better functioning foreign exchange market the cornerstone of the strategy is boosting productivity by focusing on value addition as a guiding principle for all sectors especially agriculture manufacturing solid minerals digital services tourism hospitality and entertainment value added is the key in agriculture for example just as we seek to increase production say of rice we're paying equal attention to other parts of the value chain such as storage transportation processing marketing the introduction of commodity markets and we have two private ones now and the public one similarly in the mining sector we recognize that exploitation and extraction will not create the jobs our aim is to focus on resource beneficiation and of course development of the local industry so that we can create wealth all along the mineral value chain there are a number of cardinal principles of the strategic direction which is enshrined in our national development plan the first is the centrality of job creation all programs and policies are viewed from the lens of the number of jobs direct and indirect that they will create and this is important because it also would influence the sorts of incentives that will be giving sectors of the economy because when you when we look at sectors that will create the opportunities obviously those are the sectors that must be supported and must be given the right sorts of incentives secondly the loosening of restrictions on trade we believe that generalized restrictions on trade are counterproductive especially when they impede their ability of local industries to procure critical inputs our focus instead will be on allowing import of goods to which value can be added before domestic consumption or export the focus as I said must be on value addition when implemented in full a strategic orientation of becoming a value-adding economy will help create a number of good paying jobs to give some context or you know just by way of a reference vietnam before covid-19 made had ready made garments and that sector employed 3.5 million people this is just ready made garments while the tourist sector in egypt for example employed 2.5 million people so we think that just creating situations where value can be added even if it means importing components just to be able to add that value we think that that is really the way to go although the federal government has undertaken direct interventions in creation of jobs and there are several direct interventions I think one should emphasize that recruitment for example of up to 1.5 million young people in the empire scheme over two or three cohorts now was just scratching the surface of the problem because we have well over 2 million young people entering the workforce every year so there's no doubt that it is a private sector that has to thrive in order to create the number and kinds of jobs that we need but is also important for Nigerian youth you know just in that process to acquire the skills and knowledge of the workplace and this is why we've tried to introduce quite a few programs working with development partners working with with development finance institutions and some finance institutions for example working with the united nations development program the european union and other partners were introduced what is called the jubilee fellowship program now this is a one year work placement program for 20 000 young Nigerians and will kick off in january every year we'll have 20 000 young Nigerians who are placed in the private sector and public sector and they are paid by a special grant that between and that grant is covered by the federal government the UNDP as well as the EU and so over a five-year period we expect that a hundred thousand young people will be strategically placed in the private sector learning work skills and all that and after the year they are then they can then be released into into the market but we'll pay them for that for that whole year while they are going through internship in any of the private and of course the public sector another key idea that the new plan advocates is stopping the resort to demand management as the first policy option so it envisages a movement away from the strategy of managing limited supplies to one of expanding the supply base of food and manufacturers as well as with regard to electricity supply petroleum products and foreign exchange all of these areas we think that we must de-emphasize demand management it also prioritizes the export of goods and services beyond crude oil and the exports is an important aspect of course of the entire development plan and we're building on the export expansion facility program under the economic sustainability plan technology and tech-enabled businesses will be a major focus in the coming years and I think that the stories that we're hearing from the sector are encouraging as of this year more than six such companies tech-enabled mainly in the in the fintech space have been named unicorns and as you know a unicorn is a company that is worth over a billion US dollars six of those companies started in 2016 in the middle of two recessions between 2016 and now in the middle of two recessions and a global health crisis but these companies employ hundreds of young men and women in well-paying jobs here and abroad I would believe that the right regulatory environment was and will remain critical in growing this sector now an example is the establishment of the technology and creativity advisory group which was established under the directive of the president and this group brings together public and private sector stakeholders and helps to formulate new policies including banking policies to accommodate new tech-enabled payment systems now a lot of these tech companies the fintech companies benefited from some of the new some of the new policies that were dropped that were crafted by the technology and advisory group the technology advisory group now one of those policies is this is the one that enabled the central bank to be able to issue licenses other than banking licenses for companies that are involved in payment systems so a lot of these companies who would have had to become banks by force and pay 25 billion of course wouldn't have 25 billion so because of the work of the of the of this group of the advisory group and a lot of the effort put in by the central bank as well the cbn was able to issue new types of licenses for payment processing and this helped a great deal in expanding the space for for fintech companies the advisory group on technology and creativity also articulated the need to strengthen ecosystems to support digital and creative sectors and this resulted in the conceptualization of our 600 million dollar investing in digital and creative enterprise program it's called the eyedice program that's a program that's supported by the afdb by the african development bank and we hope that it will become operational in the first quarter of 2022 so the new development plan envisages an investment commitment in the order of about 348 trillion naira over the plan period that's over the five-year period and of of course of that portion government is expected to come up with about 49.7 trillion roughly about 14 percent while the private sector is expected to invest 298 trillion or about 86 percent so the success of the plan depends greatly on a strong partnership between the public and private sectors because we realize that if the private sector does not is not able to come up with his own part of the deal obviously the plan itself fails this is why in order to encourage the private sector the federal government has taken and will take deliberate steps to improve the business environment by enabling more speedy transactions removing bureaucratic obstacles and we started doing so by the very first executive order that was issued 001 which was on promoting transparency and efficiency in the business environment and 003 promoting support for local content in public procurement which had a similar objective in mind of course the devil as they say is in the detail in our case the devil is in the implementation and I think that we're going to have robust conversations around that hopefully when we take the question and answer this government has always emphasized that the private sector has a key role to play in our efforts to build a more resilient and competitive economy private companies are engaged in design construction logistics and the financial components of national infrastructural projects so just as we are fully conscious that good infrastructure is vital to enable the private sector to be efficient and competitive we also see their role in all of the developments of infrastructure planning in all the key areas of the economy this is why we are now able to use the Abuja Kaduna railway Lagos Ibaduan railway and talk about the near completion dates for the second Niger bridge the Lagos Ibaduan expressway the Abuja Kanua expressway and the Abuja Kaduna Kano gas pipeline the infrastructure story will be taken up in not higher when we get to the point where the Imfraco the 15 trillion Naira infrastructure fund being set up in partnership again with the private sector takes up fully so it's of course important you know to try and shape the future future trajectory of our country and we hope that the structures that help to articulate the medium term plan will come out with a longer term vision for 2050 meanwhile we've been working with a group of distinguished Nigerians some of who are here on the futures project called imagine Nigeria where we've called on young people as well to share their dreams about Nigeria of the future and specify some of the things that they think will need to be done in order to get there we hope to be able to share the reports of this project very soon as one of the things that it emphasizes is the articulation of a new national narrative a more positive one that aims to highlight our successes as a nation forge cohesion amongst our people and foster a sense of community and common interest in our vibrant and dynamic nation another issue it addresses is how Nigeria should always position itself to play a leading role in Africa the ongoing progress in the establishment of the African continental free trade area is pertinent in this regard government work very closely with the private sector to undertake the a fcta impact and readiness assessment before signing up to the treaty we we delayed signing off on that treaty for almost a year to ensure that private sector contribution was taken into account the private sector is also part of the national action committee for the implementation of the a fcta co-chaired by the honor minister of industry trade and investment and the honor minister of finance budget and national planning the work of the committee is vital to ensure that we can participate effectively in the free trade area once trading starts the private sector must also contribute to the articulation of the national trade strategy it must provide support to our negotiators in the a fcta process while taking full advantage of the opportunities provided by this free trade area as things stand negotiations on the rules of origin which of course are very important for boosting local production are nearing completion over 87 completion without standing walk of about 10 percent on textiles and about 2 percent relating to automobiles in services 41 countries have made offers but these offers of course are still to be verified they face two negotiations on investments intellectual property and competition at very early stages while the conversations on women and youth and trade and digital trade have not even begun yet but we expect that they will start soon so let me conclude then by reiterating the need for Nigeria to strive to achieve high and sustainable in order to create the opportunities for our people and to overcome poverty our responses must promote productivity and value addition and move away from the despair of managing limited resources to producing and creating more in a competitive and sustainable manner i expect that the private sector on which so much depends and so and which of course is so well represented here will rise up to help Nigeria achieve these great objectives by working closely with government thank you very much for your kind attention