Vice President Yemi Osinbajo says prioritising use of local resources and creating local jobs in the construction and allied industry, among others, will be critical in sustaining the economy in the post COVID-19 era.
Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Saturday said the vice president featured virtually at the 2020 edition of ‘The Platform’ with the theme “Nigeria’s battle against COVID-19.”
The Platform is an annual discussion programme of the Covenant Christian Centre that features discussions around the state of the Nigerian nation and its development.
The May 2020 edition featured virtual participants without a life audience as a result of the global pandemic.
The Vice President said: “ I am very confident that Nigerians, with our resilience, our strength and our innovation, we will go through this in great shape.
“We have to prioritise the use of local resources in all public works; in road construction for instance, it is cheaper to build concrete roads using limestone than spending resources on the importation of bitumen.
“We have limestone in abundance hence we should be looking in that direction; the road from the Apapa port to the Lagos –Ibadan expressway is being built with cement and is of high quality.
“In the housing sector where we have a huge deficit, we need to focus on using local resources to build houses and in the process we will be creating opportunities for young engineers, architects and builders.’’
In the area of agriculture, the Vice President said that government’s initial policies had saved the country from the huge forex burden of food imports and related activities.
He said that by ramping up agriculture, especially small holder agriculture and improving the value chain in storage and processing facilities, more jobs would be created for many young people.
“We have found ourselves in a situation where we realize that the way to go is to support the creation of the jobs in agriculture and reduce food imports and ultimately address the issue of unemployment and food shortages.
“What we must do as much as we can is to change the narrative about Nigeria and provide more jobs.
“If you can ramp up food production and the logistics of bringing food to the urban centres, inflation will be controlled to a large extent,” he said.
Osinbajo added that boosting agricultural production for export purposes and supporting the mining sector would boost the country’s foreign exchange earnings and reserves.
Other contributors at the virtual summit were Governors Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, Nasir el-rufai of Kaduna State and Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State.
Governors Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and Godwin Obaseki of Edo State also participated.
Dr Chike Ihekweazu, the Director-General of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, also spoke at the interaction which included interviews, panel discussion and speeches.
The event was moderated by Pastor Poju Oyemade, the Convener of the forum.nan
