Fidelia Okafor

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had said yesterday, that the Federal Government was passionately committed to supporting local manufacturers to excel in their various business concerns.

Osinbajo, who was on a visit to the Onitsha industrial layout known as Onitsha harbor yesterday, said that he was sent by the President Mohammadu Buhari to come and have a first appraisal of the technological works going on in Anambra State.

He hailed the entrepreneurial spirit of the easterners, saying that the state was very special based on their spirit of hard work which has made them the entrepreneurial center of the country.

The Vice President also revealed that the Federal Government was working towards opening technological hubs in some key states like Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and other states to be chosen to train graduates and non graduates on technology, which he noted was the way of the future. “We want to challenge the world through the training of our youths on technology.

“What the industrialists are doing here is very crucial to this country and the Federal Government is not only interested in it but is ready to do anything possible as well as look for ways to assist in making it work better”, Osinbajo stated.

Also, at the commissioning of Rimco Refinery/ Fractionation Plant and tour of other companies under the Chikason Group in Nnewi, the Vice President described Anambra State as the industrial heartland of the country.

He gave assurance that the Federal Government would do everything possible to encourage the investors in the state. After a tour of the Chikason Industrial Group in Nnewi, Osinbajo, described the Chairman/ CEO of the group, Dr Chika Okafor, as one of leading industrialists in Africa, assuring him that the immediate action to be taken by the Federal Government would be to address the issue of power and foreign exchange to mitigate the hardship the industrialists were facing.

He said: “I want to congratulate Chikason for the great work he is doing to industrialize Nigeria. Chikason can be described as the new king of industrialization in Africa. “There are challenges facing industrialists in Nigeria and we will do  our best to solve these problems.

We will also do everything we can to support them because these are people who have invested enormous resources to achieve what we are seeing today.

Osinbajo noted that the Federal Government had adopted a policy of buying locally manufactured goods as a way of encouraging local manufacturers.

In his words: “Federal Government has adopted a policy of buying locally manufactured goods and it is doing this by patronizing vehicles manufactured by Innoson Vehicle Motors, Nnewi, and the Federal Executive Council has also approved the purchase of specialized vehicles for Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC from the Nnewi- based company.

“A lot of what we are seeing here in Nnewi is the result of private enterprise. I am pleased to see the number of people employed by Chikason Group, and other companies in Nnewi, and we will support Chikason Industries and other companies like Innoson Vehicle Motors.”