President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday declared that a new
bank, Development Bank of Nigeria would soon begin operations to strengthen the
government's economic diversification programme.
Addressing the German-Nigeria Business Forum in Berlin,
President Buhari said the bank, when fully operational, will support small and
medium enterprises in the country, by improving their access to financing.
"Our ambitions of creating a diversified and inclusive
economy in Nigeria can only be achieved by having a mix of small, medium and
large businesses.
"This is why we worked with the German development agency,
KFW, in designing the Development Bank of Nigeria which will support the small
and medium size enterprises both financially and technically to ensure they
take their rightful place in the industrialization value chain.
"I am pleased to announce that Development Bank of Nigeria
will be taking off soon and should be a game changer in our economic
diversification plans," he said.
President Buhari, who described Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) into Nigeria from Germany as modest, urged prospective investors at the
gathering to go beyond the expressions of interest and make binding commitments
for trade, investments and industry in the key priority sectors of Agriculture,
infrastructure, solid minerals and digital economy.
He said Nigeria which recorded a trade volume of 2.96
billion Dollars with Germany in 2015, still had a great deal of unexploited
potential and room to diversify its exports to Germany and increase overall
trade volumes.
According to the President, trade relations between both
countries primarily take the form of oil and gas exports from Nigeria,
machinery, vehicles and vehicle parts, telecommunications technology and
chemical products in the other direction.
“Nigeria has remained a country of potential. Now we are in
a hurry to develop and realize that potential.
“Nigeria is not yet where we would like it to be, but I am confident that the Government and people of Nigeria are determined to a CHANGE and be where we would like Nigeria to be:
“A major economy, that is subject to good governance on the basis of the rule of law and constitutional order and a responsible member of the international community,’’ he said.
President Buhari, who had earlier met with the German
Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck, told the business
gathering that with the successes recorded in the fight against terrorism and
the administrations resolute commitment to the war against corruption, Nigeria
is open for business and broader relationship with Germany.
On corruption, he said: “we have boldly set out to bring an
end to a culture of impunity and abuse of public trust. Corruption is the
reason why we went through years of an oil boom and came out with very little
to show in terms of savings or investments.
“Corruption is the reason our military struggled for so long
against Boko Haram. Corruption is one of the reasons that in spite of our rich
human and natural resources as a country, seventy percent of our population
continues to live in poverty.
“Now we have said enough is enough. It is time to make
public funds work for the public good. And that is why we are bringing culprits
to book and recovering looted funds and assets.”
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