By Chinenye Anuforo
Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has pledged the full support of the Federal Government towards creating an enabling environment for businesses to thrive to engender the rebound of the Nigerian stock market.
Osibanjo who gave the pledge during his maiden visit on Friday, to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) said, “What we are trying to do is to create an enabling environment for industry and for business.
“First we are trying to work on infrastructure which is very important. We are also trying to work on tax incentives and other manners of incentive regime that will enable businesses to do better. Of course you know what the immediate challenges are; foreign exchange, power in some cases, but all of these are issues that we are working on a day by day basis.
“My interaction today with the council has helped a great deal in trying to understand more of the immediate challenges that they have to confront, and try to see how we can deal with them.”
Earlier, the Vice President had met industry with captains who tabled the challenges that are unique to their various sectors and how the government can help tackle them.
According to the number two citizen, “there is need for the government and the private sector to partner together to take the nation out of where it is at the moment, to growth and permanent prosperity.
“Essentially what it means is that, we all recognize that this is a partnership, private sector and government, with government being merely a regulator and a partner to ensure private sector does business and does business well and efficiently because the private sector owns the economy, so for us this is an important engagement.”
Commenting on the VP’s visit and close-door interaction, President of the NSE, Mr. AIG Imoukhede said, “It is indeed a great pleasure and privilege for us to welcome and host the Vice President of Nigeria, Professor Yemi Osinbajo. He has listened so well this afternoon at the interaction that he had with council members, listed companies and the members of your community, and in the limited time his answers gave us strong reason for hope.
“The Vice President is one of those few individuals locally and internationally, who this exchange has consulted with over time when it comes to difficult issues. It therefore personifies the knowledge, intelligence and experience that is necessary to make markets like our market work, and having him in government gives me hope and gives all of us the confidence that we will overcome not just the economic challenges but the financial market challenges as well.
“He has spoken positively and with confidence about the future of our markets. I share the enthusiasm and the confidence. We are going through difficult times at this point in time but I am sure, very soon we will see much better times.”
Professor Osinbajo also performed the closing gong ceremony, in company of the NSE’s first Vice President, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, the NSE’s CEO Oscar Onyema, the NSE’s former president Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and the NSE’s current president in the person of Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede on the trading floor of the NSE.