VICE President Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday in Osogbo, capital of Osun State vowed that the federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari would do everything within its capacity to ensure that the poorest among the Nigerian masses are uplifted through active support to grow small and medium scale businesses, including entrepreneurs such that the nation ‘economy reinvigorated.
He also declared that “we are not the government of thieves and we don’t steal”, assuring that all the aspirations and yearnings of the masses would be given topmost priority by the federal government.
Osinbajo, who was addressing a teeming crowd at the Nelson Mandela Freedom Park, in Osogbo during the launch of Medium and Small Scale loans scheme clinic and GEEP said “you may have forgotten that we said if we get into power, we would fulfill all our promises. By the grace of God, we would do all that we have promised to do. We are not the government of thieves. We don’t steal. Our government is a kind of government that loves the masses. All the aspirations and yearnings of the masses would be given priority by our government”.
He described small and medium scales businesses as the catalyst for viable economic growth, saying concrete efforts would be made to create enabling environment and financial support, capable of making their impacts felt, with a view to empowering Nigerians.
According to Osinbajo, who arrived the venue around 3.55pm, “I bring you very warm greetings from President Muhammadu Buhari. We are here to see for ourselves small and medium scale businesses, because we believe small and medium scale enterprises are the engine room of business growth in Nigeria and also the engine of growth of the economy. I am here already to see for myself. I have seen businesses. People who are making brass, bronze, honey, sheer butter, furniture, fabricating of equipment and machines. I have seen hard work and resourcefulness of Osun State”.
He continued, “I want to congratulate you because this state is the engine of agro-allied industry and manufacturing in Nigeria. There are great potentials here. We have brought today what we call the market money. This is our microcredit loan and we are giving out 50,000 of such microcredit loans. We are giving out the 50,000 loans to beneficiaries in Osun. We are also establishing here a one-stop for approvals. I have brought with me the directors of NAFDAC, SON, BoI, CAC and all of them are here with me”.
“They are here to listen to all the problems and take whatever complaints you have with a view to dealing with them. For now, we are going to have an office in Osun State so that all these federal agencies would attend to the problems of small and medium scale businesses and they can be attended to one day without any problem at all”.
“I want everybody who is interested in doing business to register and be assured that the federal government is behind you and the state government is also actively working for us to ensure that we give you all that you need to do your business well. I am confident that together we can build a Nigeria that is truly great. This country belongs to every one of us. There is enough to go round if we spend our resources well”
“If we use our resources well, we can all prosper. There is enough to go round in this country and that is why we are very confident that the government under President Muhammadu Buhari that we would take this country from where we are today to greatness. It is by making sure that money is not spent anyhow. It is by making sure that government’s resources are spent for the people to truly benefit and that is how we can make this country great if we don’t have people stealing money in the government”.
“I have gone round and I have seen the roads that are being built and I have seen the bye-pass, the schools that are being built and the projects that are being done and all I can say is that I thank the Almighty God that you have a person like Rauf Aregbesola as governor of this state. All and every one of us in the APC has worked very hard to get to where we are and we know that we owe everything to the man on the street. That is why we are committed to making sure that even the poorest in our midst would be uplifted. We would support everybody we can support with all the resources that we have”
“This is a very special state. This state is very special. We are the pride of the Black man. We are the virtuous people and we are in the land of the virtuous and God will make us virtuous people. We are not thieves here. We work here”
Earlier in his remark, Osun State governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola said the launching of MSME and GEEP in Osun would open window of opportunities for small and medium scale businesses and entrepreneurs, disclosing that first set of 10,000 beneficiaries would be given N500,000 loan, while the second batch of would be granted between N500,000 and N1 million worth of loan to power their business activities.
