•Restates commitment to double digit GDP
•Promises consumer credit revolution, renewed anti-terror war
WITH an assurance to drive economic activities with steady power supply, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, yesterday laid his action plan for the country before the business community in Lagos.
He said his administration, if elected into office, would grow Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to double digit, which according to him, can only be achieved with uninterrupted electricity.
Tinubu also spoke of the inevitability of removing the subsidy on petrol.
It was a reinforcement of his promise at the 7th edition of the Kaduna Economic and Investment Summit (KadInvest 7.0) last month.
He spoke at a town hall meeting with the business community and members of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) at Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.
The platform afforded business leaders, and captains of industry, the economic players and thought leaders in the private sector the opportunity to interact with the presidential candidate and interrogate his action plan for the country.
At the meeting were President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Chairman of Zenith Bank Plc., Jim Ovia; Chairman of United Bank for Africa (UBA), Tony Elumelu; former Chief Executive of Access Bank, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede; and Group Chief Executive of Access Bank, Herbert Wigwe.
Other business leaders from agriculture, oil and gas, trade, manufacturing and creative sector, among others, were also present.
Tinubu told his audience that double digit GDP growth, when achieved, will not only stimulate the economy, but reduce poverty rate.
The former Lagos State governor stressed his determination to accomplish the feat by ensuring the revival of dead industries, promote agriculture, provide power, produce and use made-in Nigeria goods, build infrastructure and most importantly, improve the country’s security.
He said: “We shall bring the nation’s industrial policy to life. Key to this is our aim to create major and minor industrial hubs in each geopolitical zone.
“We shall not be satisfied by bolstering traditional sectors; we will foster productive excellence in new areas such as light manufacturing and the entertainment sector.
“We shall continue to press reforms in the agriculture sector that will increase productivity, improve farm incomes while lowering food prices and bringing enough food to the tables of ordinary people.”
Tinubu said through active participation in digital economy, his administration will make Nigeria a leader, instead of a bystander, in the fourth industrial revolution.
Admitting that without steady and reliable electricity supply, the envisaged double-digit GDP growth and other deliverables will not be possible, he assured the business community of his determination to provide affordable and reliable power needed to drive businesses.
On how he plans to turn around the fortunes of the power sector, Tinubu said the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) would be decentralized.
The TCN is the only segment of the power sector remaining under the control of the Federal Government.
Tinubu also promised to sustain the efforts to tackle insecurity in the country.
He said: “We shall continue the fight against insecurity by redefining our counter-insurgency doctrine and practice.
“Our response to terror, kidnapping and violent criminality will be defined by the following elements – we shall enlist more people in the armed forces, security services and the police; our forces will be given better tactical communications, mobility as well as improved aerial and ground surveillance capacity.
“Through these and other measures, we shall better identify, monitor, track, and defeat these evil groups where they are. They shall have no respite until they surrender or are utterly defeated.”
Tracing the path of Lagos economic growth under his administration, Tinubu affirmed that having achieved similar success, he can replicate same in the country as president.
He said: “Lagos is an appropriate venue for this meeting. You may have heard that I was once governor of this dynamic economic force.
