Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Abubakar Bagudu, has commended Enugu State Governor Dr. Peter Mbah for his administration’s deliberate commitment to creating a sustainable business environment for investors. He said the state was already on the right trajectory of investment and development.
This was even the case when the Ambassador of Austria to Nigeria, Thomas Schlesinger, lauded the eco-friendly business environment, which he said motivated the Austrian development partners and investors to invest in the state.
The minister, who was on a working visit to Enugu alongside the Austrian Ambassador to inspect some of the projects executed by the country’s development partners and select facilities implemented under the Nigeria COVID-19 Action, Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-Cares), expressed satisfaction with the prudent and responsible use of the funds in executing the projects.
While congratulating Mbah on the successful hosting of President Bola Tinubu and the governor’s commissioning of some of the landmark projects earlier in the month, the minister expressed optimism that more projects would be completed and commissioned.
He stressed that his visit was necessitated by inspecting the European Business Park and the Austrian Eco-Social Market Economy Programme at the Godfrey Okoye University, where young entrepreneurs are trained, and their services are outsourced in Europe and other developed countries. He also inspected NG-Cares Basic Services Projects at Enugu-Ngwo, Amagu Akaegbe Ugwu and Obeagu-Uno water schemes.
“We visited 5 Local Government Areas today, namely Enugu East, Udi, Enugu North, Nkanu West and Enugu South, and all the women we met there were dancing and sent their regards. They were dancing for a good reason because you underscored the development. We visited your massive waterworks at 9th Mile, which were delivered in 180 days.
“We’re so impressed given that the mandate of the Ministry is to appraise programmes that can either be expanded, replicated or serve as proof of consent. We are pretty impressed. Apart from what we saw, we saw the practical education; we saw the outsourcing in practice, and we saw partnerships with the university and the bakery.
“But more than that, we saw the enthusiasm of a development partner, the Austrian Government, that appreciates that to share prosperity, you must be partners. And what we saw is a real partnership. It wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation, leadership and guidance of Enugu State. So we must say a big thank you on behalf of all of us in the Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning,” the Minister added.
Senator Bagudu also noted that Enugu State, under the Mbah Administration, was one of the top-performing states in utilising the NG-Cares funds, promising that the state stood to benefit immensely from the new phase negotiated by the ministry.
He called on investors worldwide to see Enugu State and Nigeria in general as environments receptive to businesses with high returns on investments.
“We want investors. We want people who will come to our country and make money. Our country is a haven for those who want to make money, and we want to partner with them through the instrumentality of those with whom God blessed us, such as yourself,” he added.
For his part, the Austrian Ambassador described Governor Mbah’s administration as not only business-friendly but also inspiring entrepreneurial growth among the populace.
He maintained that the state possessed the ideal conditions for training young entrepreneurs who could outsource their skills, adding that the Austrian Government was open to a partnership with Nigeria on mutual grounds that would foster development.
Reacting, Mbah argued that Nigeria could only attain its development trajectory, create wealth and eradicate poverty through a shift from the federal to the sub-national development orientation.
He said the federal government had already started beaming light towards the recommended state-to-centre development approach through the series of reforms initiated by the President Tinubu Administration, maintaining that the federal government was already treating the state governments as partners in progress to be able to touch lives.
Mbah, who underscored that development waits for nobody, said the state has the capacity to absorb high-skills investment across various sectors with bankable projects that can yield good returns on investment.
The governor said some of the interventions undertaken by his administration were deliberate attempts to lift people out of poverty by creating employment opportunities, raising better living standards and ending open defecation in the state through urban and rural water projects.
“Our development model is grassroots-based. If you take, for example, our intervention in the education sector, which we described as a cut-off point, we are building 260 brand new Smart Green Schools across the 260 wards. The Smart Green Schools is not just about the infrastructure, like the blocks, which are over 7000 classrooms, but about the features. It will finally ensure that our children have access to quality learning and are imbued with the proper skill set required to deal with the rapidly shifting world.
“We are bullish about sustainable development and inclusive prosperity, which is also what we do in the primary healthcare sector, with 260 Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centre. We hope to accomplish them before our second anniversary. It is also not about the structure but about making sure they are well-equipped. I have just approved the recruitment of 2,500 healthcare personnel to ensure they are well-staffed and provide 24/7 services,” he added.
According to him, the administration was also intervening in the agriculture sector by building 260 farm estates, each with at least 200 hectares of land, to boost and upscale production across all the electoral wards.
While adding that the farm estates will help train smallholder farmers with the right crops to grow and other facilities that would ensure zero post-harvest losses, the governor urged the minister to pay special attention to Enugu State in terms of intervention that would boost micro, small, and medium enterprises.
