Nigeria’s Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, Abubakar Bagudu, has commended Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, for the deliberate commitment of his administration to creating a sustainable business environment for investors, saying that the state was already on the right trajectory of investment and development.
This was even as the Ambassador of Austria to Nigeria, Thomas Schlesinger, lauded the eco-friendly business environment, which he said motivated the Austrian development partners and investors to invest in the state.
The minister, who was on a working visit to Enugu alongside the Austrian Ambassador, to inspect some of the projects executed by the country’s development partners, as well as select facilities implemented under the Nigeria COVID-19 Action, Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-Cares), expressed satisfaction with the prudent and responsible use of the funds in executing the projects.
While congratulating Mbah on the successful hosting of President Bola Tinubu and the commissioning of some of the landmark projects by the governor earlier in the month, the minister expressed optimism that more projects would be completed and commissioned.
He stressed that his visit was necessitated by the need to inspect the European Business Park and the Austrian Eco-Social Market Economy Programme located at the Godfrey Okoye University where young entrepreneurs are trained, with their services outsourced in Europe and other developed countries.
He said that he also inspected NG-Cares Basic Services Projects at Enugu-Ngwo, Amagu Akaegbe Ugwu and Obeagu-Uno water schemes.
“We visited five local government areas today, namely Enugu East, Udi, Enugu North, Nkanu West and Enugu South, and all the women we met there were dancing and sent their regards.
They were dancing for a good reason because you underscored the development. We visited your massive waterworks at 9th Mile delivered in 180 days.
“We’re so impressed given that the mandate of the Ministry is to appraise programmes that can either be expanded, replicated or serve as proof of consent. We are quite impressed.
Apart from what we saw, we saw the practical education; we saw the outsourcing in practice and we saw partnership with the university and the bakery.”
Senator Bagudu also noted that Enugu State under the Mbah Administration was one of the top performing states in the utilisation of the NG-Cares funds, promising that the state stood to benefit immensely from the new phase that was being negotiated by the ministry.
He called on investors across the globe to see Enugu State and Nigeria in general as an environment receptive to businesses with high returns on investments.
On his part, the Austrian Ambassador described the administration of Mbah as not only business-friendly but also inspiring entrepreneurial growth among the populace.
Reacting, Mbah argued that Nigeria could only attain its development trajectory, create wealth and eradicate poverty through a shift from the federal to the sub-national development orientation.
Mbah, who underscored that development waits for nobody, said the state has the capacity to absorb high skills investment across various sectors with bankable projects that can yield good returns-on-investment.
