 Thank you very much for the kind invitation to join you at this sixth edition of the Kaduna Investment Summit, or Cadence. I think just listening to you, the rigor and innovation that you and your team have brought to policy formulation and implementation is clearly an exemplar for what is possible in the States and indeed what is possible in the nation. You must all be commended for the consistency that has been a strong characteristic of your administration. Cadence has been held annually over the past six years and has evolved over time from the launch of the development plan to the unveiling of the Kaduna Infrastructure Master Plan and the urban renewal project. So this summit has become a platform not just to market Kaduna but Nigeria as a compelling business destination for investment. I must also say that your efforts are clearly positioned to benefit maximally from the critical infrastructure development that Mr. President has committed himself to single-mindedly since the inception of our administration. So the construction of the AKK pipeline would enable the ready availability of gas for power and industries in Kaduna. While the Apuja-Kaduna-Kano Railway and the Apuja-Tukano Highway will definitely ease the movement of good some people. For power, the Ministry of Power and the ADP are working together to ensure that the construction starts on the Mandu to New Kano 3030 KV line enhancement. And of course, your efforts will enter on broadband expansion, broadband connectivity expansion will benefit from our economic sustainability plan and the broadband connectivity for all by 2023. These federal government investments and these actions complemented by the policies and investments of the Kaduna State Government will catalyze an economic hub that will create millions of jobs and opportunities. And I think you much more eloquently presented the case for Kaduna State as the economic hub for the future job creation and also for the future of economic development, not just here, but also across the country. As you are aware, one of our programs in the economic sustainability plan is the solar Niger program, which is aimed at providing 5 million homes with electricity through solar systems and mini grids. In this particular regard, the national agency for science and engineering infrastructure is being repositioned to incubate local end-to-end solar manufacturing and fabrication given our country's increasing demand for solar partners. So I think there is room for synergy here also with the remarkable work that the Kaduna State Government is doing with Blue Camel. From this project, we can see streetlights all around the city and Kaduna built solar streetlights popping up everywhere, including the older jobs and where they go there, amongst other places. I'm sure that with what is happening, we may be seeing the cost of developing a solid solar production supply chain right here in this area. Opening me a word or two on the theme of this conference. From last year's theme of infrastructure, industrialization and innovation, to this year's theme of towards a sustainable, knowledge-based economy, there is a commendable steadiness of thought on the development pathway for the state. Indeed, the focus today, and I'm sure that everyone agrees, must be developing a knowledge-based economy to briefly clarify the terminology because there are so many different iterations of that expression. The knowledge economy already refers to how human capital, education and knowledge can become productive assets or business projects to be sold for profit. So this is simply the commercialization of intellectual capacity rather than natural resources or physical effort or physical labor. So for example, programmers developing new software and search engines for data and health workers using digital data or algorithms to improve treatments or fintech companies using technology platforms of various kinds for granting on collateralized loans and also software applications for various other financial services. It also means digital solutions for agriculture to improve yields or more effectively manage farms, digital platforms that provide study aids and online courses for students and so on and so forth. So the trajectory of economic development has tended to be from agriculture and manufacturing then to services and then as we get well there we go to the knowledge economy. But by the shared versatility of technology today, it is possible to leapfrog and it's much easier to leapfrog from where we are to the knowledge economy. Indeed, rather than go from stage to stage, the knowledge economy can enhance our performance and all the benefits that we can derive from agriculture, from manufacturing and services. So today we are seeing faster computing speeds and cheaper products from a time when it was exciting to be able to store 256 megabytes where now in an era where it is possible to store on the cloud. In terabytes, libraries of millions of volumes can be stored and retrieved within seconds. Similarly given the cost, it was conceivable at a time to integrate batteries, it was not conceivable at a time to integrate batteries into electricity grids. Today Tesla's mega-pack battery can provide up to one gigahertz hour or 1,000 megahertz of power. Just by, just with one single banking, that's 1,000 megahertz of power. So that is possible. Here in Nigeria, all our youth-owned digital businesses are making great strikes. Think tech companies and other technology-enabled solutions are expanding so rapidly that the future of banking and financial services may not even belong to banks or bankers as we know them today. Companies like Beastac, which was recently acquired for $200 million, could have banked without a single physical branch, Prosper, another of these fintech companies. That is revolutionizing banking for small businesses by tailoring banking and digital solutions. Your work that builds the platforms for trade-up money and market money, they're creating jobs and bringing in investments every single day. So given these strikes, Nigeria is surely becoming a technology investment destination in sub-Saharan Africa. They're also seeing the impact in this technology in agriculture. This tomato juice processing facility, which will be commissioned today, with a capacity to produce tomato paste at, I'm told, 85 tons a day, and this, I'm told, is another product of Cardinus. Tomato juice is helping build a model for integration of processing and subsistence farming that can be scaled and across the country to solve these perennial problems of producing raw materials without knowledge based addition. Aside from tomato juice, there are other innovative companies doing exceedingly well in the technology space or technology enabled. But Bangladesh, for example, that provides training financial credit and cultural inputs and harvesting and marketing support to small-holder farming is also heavily technology enabled. So this bridge between small-holder and scalable agriculture has been executed with technology in a way that strengthens the small-holder farming. But I must say, and I'm sure everyone will agree, we are very far, very far from where we are to be. We're very far from taking the full advantage of our young people, especially the millions of very young talents that we have today. The main problem is how to surmount the barriers to knowledge to the knowledge economy. How do we surmount those barriers to the knowledge economy? The World Bank describes those barriers to the knowledge economy as the four barriers of the knowledge economy. The first is institutional structures that provide incentives for entrepreneurship and the use of knowledge. The second is the ability of skilled labour and good education, a good education system. The third is access to information and communication technology, ICT infrastructure. The fourth is a vibrant innovation landscape that includes academia, the private sector and civil society. So the knowledge economy, as the name implies, is entirely dependent on intellectual capital, a workforce and talent pool that is educated, that is dynamic, is adaptable, sounds relevant, practical problems solving education. So science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM education as is called, is crucial. The curriculum that the Federal Ministry of Education is developing at the moment adds arts to that combination of subjects. So our own economy is not STEM, it's deep because we've added arts to it. The task here is major, developing an educational system that will resource and support the knowledge economy. From teacher training to acquiring technology and other equipment, clearly we need effective planning. How do we create adequate resource capacity and capability? What will it take to train and equip enough engineers, technology, scientists, doctors and other products of STEM curriculum to drive a knowledge economy? Thankfully we're not alone. This is a global problem. There are global shortages everywhere of technological talent. A recent analysis showed that artificial intelligence and machine learning, the talent gap for artificial intelligence and machine learning is about 1.2 million, 1.2 million resources. While there are only 650,000 professionals employable in these roles, the best of OECD countries have 16 scientists or researchers per 1,000 employees and spend 1 to 3% of GDP on research and development. But where do we stand on that scale? How do we accelerate our progress? With the global gaps in talent, well-planned training programs who didn't see us in Nigeria becoming a talent hub for technical talent, for technical expertise. And this was proven with the success of Andela. Andela, of course, is a local Nigerian company, although Andela is more important national of these days. In developing and placing, this is a company that develops and places software engineering talent. And this can be replicated across a broad range of STEM disciplines. So it is possible for companies like Andela that are already doing so much developing software engineers, developing all manner of other programers and all manner of other talent, it's possible to do even more and to increase the numbers. Some ideas that can be explored include support for on-the-job tailored training to accelerate talent development and augment professional schooling. For example, I understand that Blue Camera has a solar installation training facility on its industrial campus where it trains hundreds of students a year. Also, the curricula in trainings could have a standard knowledge set that must be learned prior to specialization. These standard principles should support the ability of talent across jobs so that they can adapt to changes in their knowledge base economy. I think also the Cash in the Grime Fellowship, which we are housing at the fellowship of which the Cabinet State Government initiated a few years ago, exposes fellows to four leaders and experts and to practical experience through rotational job programs and community services. This is also an example. It's an example of the type of initiatives needed to train high-calibre talents for the knowledge base future. These kinds of fellowships are crucial, these kinds of fellowships are important because they take people out of the school environment out of the menu and bring them to proper practical learning environments. There's a need to expand these sorts of initiatives and replicate them all over the country. It's also noteworthy that though this program was conceived and sponsored by the Cabinet State Government, it is open to all qualified Nigerians anywhere who live anywhere in the country. But before I close, let me salute and give a progress that has been laid with the Galaxy Mall, the ground breaking ceremony which I attended some time back. I'm looking forward to working through the relocated sites today. Just as I'm equally pleased to be going to the Kasiwan market to see the great work that the Kaduna market development and my company has done in repositioning that market. Of course, I would like also to see the sort of power plant built for the market through the rural education fund and its impact on beneficiaries. Also, of course, I've told that we're also at some point, I think it's for tomorrow, I'm also sure that that's the day. I'm looking forward to moving out of the factory and I must say that we look forward to the completion of that project and the return of the robot production to Kaduna here. There's so much going on and so much to talk about. So I must again commend the government that Nasiwa will find. So, we'll get to your vision. But more importantly for sticking to a plan and for making sure that the plan gets results. And also the deputy governor Haji Abargarabe, Executive Council, Executive Secretary for Haji Abargarabe, and the organizing team for Kaduna University for the great work, including successfully organizing this exciting investment summit. Let me reiterate that the federal government will support and encourage your efforts every step of the way. And we are committed to as much as possible creating a stable and collaborative business environment providing infrastructure and of course ensuring security. For we realize that in addition to connected interventions, jobs and social protection are vital for security and sustainable development. And we are, as you mentioned, making us a greater effort to enhance security across the country. And in this region particularly, especially working with the most affected states. God bless Kaduna states. God bless