President Muhammadu Buhari has opened the 39th Kaduna International Trade Fair where he urged Nigerians to take advantage of the fair to grow their businesses.
Speaking at the event on Sunday, the President who was represented by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Okechukwu Enelamah, stressed that the country is facing challenges steering the economy towards global economic integration through trade liberalization, efficient and effective mechanism for conflict.
He said, “We must therefore gird our loins to face the challenges of global trade through adhering to best practices. Nigeria’s economy is influenced by both external and internal factors like any other country operating within the present global setting.
“At the domestic front, there are challenges of nurturing a stable democracy founded on respect for the rule of law, security of lives and property, adequate supply of power and energy, infrastructure, judicious management of national resources, all essential for creating the enabling environment for private sector participation in the economy.”
Governor Nasir El-Rufai who was represented by his deputy, Architect Bala Bantex urged businessmen and women to take advantage of the trade fair to showcase their goods and services.
He noted that the fair themed: ‘Promoting Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for International Competitiveness’ is aimed at encouraging local and foreign businessmen and women to showcase to the world new products, innovations and business ideas that will further strengthen the economy, especially in Kaduna.
“We have attracted so many local and foreign investments to the state within the last two and a half years of our administration and are still doing a lot to attract as many businesses to the state because that is the surest way of generating employment to the teaming youths and to equally boost the economy thereby generating more revenue for the state,” Bantex said.
He assured that the state will continue to encourage both local and foreign investors to make Kaduna State their investment destination because all the bottlenecks to the ease of doing business in the have been removed.
In her remark, the National President of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA), Iyalode Alaba Lawson urged the state government to continue to support investments in the state’s economy, especially the private sector and the country at large.
