The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr. Okechukwu Enelamah, has disclosed collaboration of the Bank of Industry (BOI) with 21 State governors to implement the Youth Entrepreneurship Scheme (YES) programme, which provides discretionary funding for National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and entrepreneurs that are interested in starting their own businesses.

He made this declearation at the 2018 Public Lecture/Summit of the Commerce and Industry Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CICAN) in Lagos.

According to him, the bank’s total lending to Micro, Small, Medium Scale Enterprises (MSMEs) in 2017 was over N112.5 billion.

He assured that government is vigorously pursuing the implementation of the one local Government, One Product (OLOP) Programme which is expected to generate over 4,900 new jobs, just as it is committed to the upgrading of Industrial Development Centres (IDCs), through grant from the African Development Bank (ADB) for conversion to MSMEs cluster parks.

He also listed the ongoing implementation of the nationwide MSMES Clinics, which started in Abain January, 2017 and  spread across the country with the remarkable efforts of Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo as another industrial development effort.

The Minister further stated that in an acknowledgement of the fact that the capital needed to transform Nigeria to the country of the citizens dreams cannot be funded entirely from the government, it has sustained its partnership with the private sector  to attract investment.

“We have therefore strengthened investment promotion capabilities of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), with focus on proactively targeting and tracking domestic and international investors and investments, he disclosed.

The minister listed other efforts which he said would guarantee improved fortunes for the industrial sector as follows: “Led by President Mohammadu Buhari, the government has worked with other countries and global businesses to facilitate a number of high profile investments into the country.

Reeling out a list of achievements, the federal government assured that a lot is in the offing at turning around the fortunes of the nation’s industrial sector and indeed the economy.

Citing example, the minister posited that Nigeria is the number one investment destination in Africa, with announced investment commitment of US$66.36 Billion in 2017. “Only recently, through bilateral talks with the United Kingdom, Germany, and China, we signed Memorandum Of Understanding (MoUs) for investment commitment totaling several billions of dollars.

On his part, President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr Babatunde Runwase also stressed the imperative of a strong economy to the nation’s industrial national development.

To Runwase however, Nigeria’s industrial national development challenges are because successive administrations have failed to focus on how to ensure a strong economy by appropriately encouraging and supporting entrepreneurship.

According to him, We need a strong economy to support our democracy, create jobs and alleviate poverty and to guarantee security and ease social tension.

“We therefore should continually emphasize the values of entrepreneurship, enterprise, hardwork, professionalism, excellence and integrity in our economic environment. These values are essential for a sustainable wealth creation process, he added.

The LCCI boss also stressed: “It is the entrepreneur that makes things happen in an economy. They are the drivers of the economy and the creator of wealth.

“An economy can only be as robust as its entrepreneurs. Therefore, if we must make progress in our economy, our private sector would have to play a role”.

CICAN Chairman, Mr Toba Agboola assured that the association would continue to provide opportunities for dialogue between public/private operators