The Governor of
Delta State, Senator Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, the Governor of Central Bank of
Nigeria, Mr Godwin Emefiele and others have identified Micro, Small and
Medium-Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) as the fastest way for Nigeria’s economic
growth.
While
identifying MSMEs as great employers of labour, they observed that investing in
such would not only boost Nigeria’s economy but, will ensure speedy
technological development of the country.
Their
positions were made known Saturday at the maiden edition of Ika Economic and
Investment Summit organised by the Ika Village Square at Agbor. The summit had
as its theme, “exploiting the economic potentials of Ika nation through
strategic partnership.”
“As it
concerns MSMEs, we have done a lot to encourage our people to be entrepreneurs
but, a lot more needs to be done; a lot of our people are not knowledgeable
enough and as such, they make a lot of mistakes, we are not only training our
people to acquire skills as government but, we are training our youths,
equipping them to function on their own, monitor and mentor them to succeed as
entrepreneurs because, education backed with skills is the way to go for our
country,” Governor Okowa said. He also, observed that it was important for the
people to go into agriculture, noting that job opportunities abound through the
agriculture value chain.
The Governor
asserted, “one of the ways to have an inclusive growth in our nation is
agricultural production and its value chain; I am encouraging our politicians
to go into farming, there are lot of benefits in farming, it is a great
employer of labour; even in the area of palm oil production, we have not been
able to produce enough palm oil to meet with the need of Nigerians not to talk
of export.”
He used the
occasion to call on parents to instill in their children, the right values,
saying, “without the right family values of bringing up children who
appreciates hard work, we will not achieve the desired results; parents must
realize that if they don’t know what their children do to earn a living, they
have failed as parents; most of us may not want to talk about it, but, most of
us have no control over children which means, we have failed as parents.”
The Governor
of CBN in an address delivered on his behalf by Chief Ikeghagu H.C, stated,
“MSMEs are recognized worldwide as a catalyst for rapid growth, job creation
and poverty reduction; they have been described as the incubators of innovation
and employment, which are usually resilient to most exogenous shocks.”
Major-General
Lucky Irabor, Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole North East Theatre Command
stated, “without security, there is no development, development and security
are interwoven.”
Dr Kingsley
Emu, Chairman of the Organizing Committee in a welcome address, stated that the
Economic and Investment Summit was organised to address economic issues facing
the Ika ethnic nationality and a bold declaration of the resolve of the people
to succeed.
Those who
spoke at the occasion include, Prof. J.C. Egbon, Prof. Eric Eboh, Dr Jude
Ogala, Commissioner for Police David Igbodo, Prof. Stella Chiemeke, among
others.
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