President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday said he and his cabinet members are ready to ‘think out of the box’ to get Nigeria out of recession.
Speaking at a Ministerial Retreat on the Economy and the Budget with the theme “Building Inter- ministerial Synergy for Effective Planning and Budgeting in Nigeria” held at the State House Conference Centre, Abuja, the President said: “The challenges we face in the current recession require ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, to deploy strategies that involve engaging meaningfully with the private sector, to raise the level of private sector investment in the economy as a whole.”
He continued: “We are confident that the level of private investment will grow as we are determined to make it easier to do business in Nigeria by the reforms we are introducing under the auspices of the Presidential Committee on Ease of Doing Business.”
He said his administration will explore ways of turning the current challenges into opportunities for the youths.
“This is why we have embarked on measures and actions that will open up the opportunities we have seen in the Power, Housing, Agriculture, Mining, Trade and Investment, Information Communication Technology (ICT) Sectors, Tourism, Transport and other sectors.
“I wish to reassure its teeming youth that this Government would remain steadfast in its effort to ensure greater progress and prosperity for you. “While Government is taking the lead in the task of repositioning our economy for Change, we cannot achieve this completely by ourselves. We will need, and we ask for the support and cooperation of the private sector’s domestic and foreign investors, the States and Local Governments, the National Assembly and the Judiciary as well as all well-meaning Nigerians in this important task.
“We are confident that working together, we shall succeed,” the President said.