President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday restated his administration’s commitment to sustain the investments in critical infrastructure across the country as a strategic step towards improving the environment for businesses and properly positioning the nation’s economy on the path of sustainable growth.
The president made the promise when he received representatives of Trade Associations from the 36 states and the FCT led by the National Coordinator, Paul Ikonne, at the Presidential Villa inAbuja.
He assured the delegation that government would continue to do its best based on available resources to ensure that the country is safe and secure for enterprises, particularly through improvements of critical infrastructure, especially roads and railways, to ensure ease in movement of goods and services.
Buhari explained: ‘‘These efforts are part of our campaign slogans on security, the economy and the fight against corruption; and on security, it is common-sense that unless the country is secured it cannot be governed.
“The best people to comment on the achievements of this administration in terms of security are people who come from the North East where they used to share their local governments with Boko Haram, get ambushed and dispossessed. Today, we are all witnesses to the commendable efforts of government on security”, the President added.
This is even as he promised that government would look into some concerns by the traders in respect of alleged illegal seizure of good by agents of governments, harmonisation of taxes and charges, and the need for timely completion of rail networks connecting ‘‘South to North, North to the East and East to the West.’’
Earlier in his remarks, the leader of the delegation commended the Buhari-led administration for instituting policies that are friendly and encouraging to traders, artisans and farmers as well as on the ongoing anti-graft war in the country.
Ikonne said: “Mr President, we must applaud your courage to fight corruption which is restoring Nigeria’s reputation within and outside the country. “This, indeed, is an outstanding achievement and we are proud of you.”
